



5 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 5 


t UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, f 





























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WORDS OLD AND NEW. 

























TOor&s flfft mill Jtem: 


OR, 


Gems from the 

Christian Authorship of all Ages. 


SELECT! 


ECTED BY 

HORATIUS^ BONAR, D.D. 


‘ Simul ovines unum templum ; et singuli singula templa 
siimus. ’—Augustine, Ep. 187. 



JAMES NISBET AND CO., BERNERS STREET. 

1866. 

V 











Edinburgh : 

Printed by John Greig and Son. 


I 







WORDS OLD AND NEW. 

-♦- 

CLEMENT (OF ROME). 

BORN (ABOUT) 30—DIED 102. 

1. Let us lay aside all vain and empty cares, and let us 
rise up to the glorious and venerable rule of our calling. 
Let us look stedfastly to the blood of Christ, and see how 
precious His blood is in the sight of God. 

2. They gave Rahab a sign that she should hang out 
of her house a scarlet rope, shewing thereby that by the 
blood of our Lord there should be redemption to all who 
believe and hope in God. 

3. Let us hold fast to those who follow peace, and not 
to such as only pretend to desire it. 

4. Consider the trees. Take the vine for an example. 
First it sheds its leaves; then it buds; after that it spreads 
its leaves ; then it flowers; then come the sour grapes ; and 
after them follows the ripe fruit. Of a truth, yet a little 
while, and His will shall suddenly b£ accomplished; the 
Holy Scripture itself bearing witness that He shall quickly 
come, and not tarry ; and that the Lord shall suddenly 
come to His temple, even the Holy One whom ye look for. 


A 
















WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


5. Let us consider, beloved, how the Lord continually 
shews us that there shall be a future resurrection, of which 
He has made our Lord Jesus Christ the first fruits. Let 
us contemplate the resurrection that takes place every 
season before our eyes. Day and night declare a resur¬ 
rection to us. The night lies down, and the day arises ; 
again the day departs, and the night comes on. Let us 
behold the fruits of the earth. The seed is sown. It fell 
into the earth dry and naked ; in time it dissolves; and 
from the dissolution the power of the Lord raises it again; 
and of one single seed many arise and bring forth fruit. 

6. We also, being called by the same will in Christ 
Jesus, are not justified by ourselves, neither by our own 
wisdom, nor knowledge, nor piety, nor the works which 
we have done; but by the faith by which God Almighty 
has justified men from the beginning; to whom be glory 
for ever and ever. Amen. 

7. March on, men and brethren, with all earnestness in 
Ilis holy laws. 

8. Wherefore are there strifes, and anger, and divisions, 
and wars amongst us. Have we not all one God and 
one Christ ? Has not one Spirit been poured out upon 
us 1 Have we not one calling in Christ ? 

9. In love did the Lord join Himself to us. For the 
love He bore toward us, our Lord Jesus Christ gave His 
own blood for us, by the will of God; His flesh for our 
flesh, His soul for our souls. 

10. Let us every hour expect the kingdom of God, in 
love and righteousness, because we know not the day of 
Christ’s appearing. 







IGNA TJ US. 3 


IGNA TIUS. 

BORN (ABOUT) 40—MARTYRED 107. 

1. Let fire and the cross, let wild beasts, let all the 
malice of the devil, come upon me; only may I enjoy 
Jesus Christ. 

2. It is better for me to die for Christ than to reign 
over the ends of the earth. 

3. Stand firm and immovable as an anvil when it is 
beaten upon. It is the part of a brave combatant to be 
wounded, and yet to overcome. But especially we ought 
to endure all things for God’s sake, that He may bear with 
us. Be every day better; consider the times; expect 
Him, who is above all time, eternal ; invisible, though, for 
our sakes, made visible; impalpable and impassible, yet 
for us subjected to sufferings, enduring all things for our 
salvation. 

4. Him I seek who died for us; Him I desire who 
rose again for us; He is my gain laid up for me. Suffer 
me to imitate the passion of my God. 

5. I have no delight in the bread that perisheth, nor in 
the pleasures of this life. I long for the bread of God, the 
flesh of Jesus Christ, of the seed of David; and the drink 
that I long for is His blood. 

6. If any speak not of Jesus Christ,, they are monu¬ 
ments over the dead, on which are written only the names 
of men. 







4 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


7. The objects dear to me are Jesus Christ, His cross, 
His death, His resurrection, and the faith which is in 
Him, through which I seek to be justified. 

8. The last times are come upon us; let us therefore 
be very reverent, and fear the long-suffering of God, that 
it be not to us unto condemnation. 

9. It is better for a man to be silent, and be a Christian, 
than to say he is, and not to be. 

10. He that has the word of Jesus is able to hear His 
very silence. 

11. Why are we not all wise, seeing we have received 
the knowledge of God, which is Jesus Christ? 

12. It is meet that we should not only be called Chris¬ 
tians, but be so. 

13. Do not speak with Jesus Christ, and yet covet the 
world. 

14. My love is crucified ; and the fire that is within me 
does not desire any water. 

15. A Christian has not the power of himself, but must 
always be at leisure for God’s service. 

j 6. It is meet that you should, by all means, glorify 
Jesus Christ, who hath glorified you. 

17. There is one Physician, both fleshly and spiritual; 
made, and not made; God incarnate ; true life in death; 
both of Mary and of God, passible and impassible; Jesus 
Christ our Lord. 

18. Ye are the stones of the Father’s temple, prepared 
for His building, and drawn up on high by the cross of 
Christ. 













IREN ALUS. 


IREN EE US. 

BORN (ABOUT) 130—MARTYRED 202. 

1. How could we obtain salvation, if it had not been 
God who has wrought salvation 1 Or, how can man come 
into fellowship with God, if God has not come to man h 
How was it possible that Christ should overcome the 
strong one, who held man under his dominion, and let the 
vanquished go free, if He were not Himself stronger than 
man, who had been vanquished ? 

2. What profit is there in that honour, which is so 
short-lived, as that, perchance, it was not yesterday, 
neither will it be to-morrow ? Such men as labour for it 
are but like froth, which, though it be uppermost, is yet 
altogether useless. 

3. He united man to God ; for, if man had not over¬ 
come the adversary of man, the enemy could not have 
been overcome. 

4. If man had not been united to God, he could not 
have been a partaker of immortality. 

5. It behoved the Mediator between God and man, by 
His relationship to both, to bring both into agreement 
with each other. 

6. The Word of God, almighty as well as perfect in 
righteousness, set Himself against the apostasy, to redeem 
His own property from Satan, who had borne rule over us 
from the beginning, and had seized what was not his own. 










6 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


This redemption was not effected by violence ; but the 
Lord redeemed us with His own blood, and gave His life 
for our life, His flesh for our flesh, and so effected our 
salvation. 

7. Our Lord would not have gathered together these 
things to Himself, and have saved, through Himself, what 
was lost in Adam, if He had not actually been made flesh 
and blood. He, therefore, had flesh and blood, not of a 
kind different from what men have; but He gathered into 
Himself the very original creation of the Father, and 
sought that which was lost. 

8. The Word of God, Jesus Christ, out of His bound¬ 
less love, became what we are, that He might make us 
what He is. 

9. Then from the heavens, in clouds, shall the Lord 
come, in the glory of his Father, to cast Antichrist, and 
all who follow him, into the lake of fire. Then shall He 
introduce the days of the kingdom to the just, that is, the 
rest, the hallowed seventh day, restoring to Abraham his 
promised heritage; in which kingdom, many shall come 
from the east and the west, to sit down with Abraham, 
Isaac, and Jacob. 

10. To those who abide in His love, He gives com¬ 
munion with Himself. And communion with God is 
life and light; the fruition of all the good that is with 
Him. On those who stand aloof from Him, He inflicts 
the separation which they have chosen for themselves. 
But separation from God is death; and separation from 
light is darkness. Separation from God is the loss of all 
good that there is with God. Besides the loss of all good, 







IRENAL US. 7 


they incur the infliction of all punishment. And as the 
good that is with God is eternal, so its loss is eternal, and 
without end. 

n. Three times did the Lord conquer Satan; three 
times did He repulse him (in the temptation) and drive 
him off, lawfully vanquished. And thus Adam’s breach 
of the law of God was cancelled by the obedience of the 
Son of man, keeping the statutes of God. 

12. Justly, then, was he led captive, who had unjustly 
led man into captivity; and man, who had been taken 
captive, was delivered from the power of his master, 
according to the mercy of God our Father, who pitied his 

own workmanship, and gave him salvation; restoring him 

* 

through the Word, that is, Christ; that man might know 
by experience that, not from himself, but the gift of God, he 
receives incorruption. 

13. As in the evening it was that God spoke to Adam, 
seeking after him, so is it in the last times that He has 
visited Adam’s race, seeking after them. 

14. It is by the flesh and blood of the Lord that we are 
saved. 







8 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


CLEMENT (OF ALEXANDRIA). 

BORN (ABOUT) 150—DIED 220. 

1. Those who adorn only the exterior, but neglect the 
inner man, are like the Egyptian temples, which present 
every kind of decoration upon the outside, but contain 
within, in place of a deity, a cat, a crocodile, or some 
other vile animal. 

2. Wealth is like a viper, which is harmless if you know 
how to take hold of it; but, if you do not, it will twine 
round your hand and bite you. 

3. Remember, that unless ye become children by a new 
birth, the Scripture plainly testifieth that ye shall never 
be able to recover your true Father, nor to enter His 
heavenly kingdom; for that is inaccessible to the stranger 
and the alien; and he alone who is enrolled and made 
free of that city, and hath regained his heavenly Father, 
shall there dwell in that Father’s house, receive His in¬ 
heritance, and enjoy communion with His true and be¬ 
loved Son. Such is the church of the first-begotten, 
written in the heavens, and rejoicing around the divine 
throne with myriads of angels. Does God freely offer 
so great salvation, and will you still blindly rush into 
destruction? 

4. ‘ Awake, He saith, 1 thou that sleepest, and arise 
from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.’ ‘To-day, 
if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts; ’ and 







CLEMENT (OF ALEXANDRIA). 


9 


this to-day shall last till that word can be used no more. 
For the day of instruction shall endure until the consum¬ 
mation of time itself; until the real and unfading day of 
God shall be co-extended through eternity. Oh, if an 
entrance into that eternity could be purchased, were not 
the whole of Pactolus too small a price? Yet, to you it 
is freely offered, and requires but the treasure of a living 
faith, and love placed in your own possession. Yet, how 
many cling to this world, as the sea-weed to the rocks of 
the shore, and regard not this glorious immortality; but 
true religion can be learned effectually from God alone. 
He is the only perfect teacher. He alone has power 
to renew in man the likeness of His own image. 

5. We must impart our wealth benevolently; avoiding 
the extremes of meanness and ostentation. We must not 
let our love of the beautiful run into selfishness or excess; 
lest it should be said of us, 1 His horse, or his farm, or his 
servant, or his plate, is worth fifteen talents, while he 
himself would be dear at three farthings. 

6. The Lord has made man after His own image, that 
he might be a fair self-breathing instrument of sweet music. 

7. The Saviour is many-voiced, and in many ways 
strives to effect the salvation of man. 

8. He who has opened the door, hitherto shut, will 
reveal what is within, and will shew those things which no 
one could know before, unless he entered by Christ, through 
whom alone God is perceived. 

9. Call hither your Phidias, your Polyclitus, your Praxi- 
tiles, your Apelles, and all your noble artists; not one of 
them can make a breathing image, not one of them can 












WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


mould his clay into flesh. Who softened the marrow ? 
who hardened the bones % who swelled the veins, and 
poured the blood into them ? who spread the skin over 
all ? who of you all is able to construct an eye that shall 
see % who can breathe a soul into his work % who will 
bestow righteousness % who will promise immortality ? 
He alone, who is the Creator of the universe, the great 
Artist and Father, who formed man to be His living 
image. Your Olympian Jupiter, the image of an image, 
is the vain work of Attic hands; but the true image of 
God is the Word, the Son of the Eternal mind, the divine 
reason, the light given forth by the primal light of all. 

10. I urge thee to save thyself. This is Christ’s will. 
He presents thee with life. 

11. Till the ground if thou be a husbandman ; but still, 
amid thy labours learn to know God. If thou be a sea¬ 
man, follow thy calling, but call upon the heavenly 
Steersman. 

12. The man in whom the Word dwells is become like 
God; and is fair without striving to seem so. This is 
real beauty. 

13. Man is loved of God; for on his account was the 
only-begotten Son sent from the bosom of the Father. 








TER TULL IAN 


TER TULL IAN. 

BORN (ABOUT) 160—DIED (ABOUT) 240. 

1. Truth set out with being hated; as soon as she 
appeared, she was reckoned an enemy ; as many as are 
strangers to it, so many are its foes. 

2. Christians are made , not born such. 

3. Scattered abroad, wanderers, banished from their 
own clime and land, they (the Jews) roam about the 
world with neither man nor God for their king; to whom 
it is not permitted, even in the right of strangers, to greet 
their native land, with so much as the sole of their 
foot. 

4. Two advents of Christ are declared : the first, which 
hath been already fulfilled, in the lowliness of the human 
nature ; the second, which remaineth yet to come, to close 
this world, in the majesty of the divine. 

5. Men sit not down to meat, before tasting, in the first 
place, of prayer to God. 

6. O Glory, allowed because it has a human object! 
Therefore it is not deemed foolhardy to despise death and 
shame ! And, it is permitted to men to suffer for country, 
for empire, for friendship, but not for God ! 

7. We spring up the thicker the oftener we are mowed 
down. The blood of the martyrs is their harvest-seed. 

8. It mattereth not where you are in the world, if ye be 
not of the world; if ye have lost any of the joys of life, ye 







12 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


may count it goodly traffic to suffer somewhat, that ye 
may gain the more. 

9. If earthly glory have such power, how much more 
the heavenly ? Is the piece of glass so precious ? How 
much more the true pearl ? 

10. In the world all things are shadowy, nothing real. 

♦ 

ti. He that is the Head of the man, and the beauty 
of the woman, and the Husband of the Church, Christ 
Jesus, what crown did He put on for both man and 
woman ? Of thorns and briars, as a figure of those sins 
which the lusts of our flesh has brought to us, but the 
power of the cross has taken away. 

12. The theatre is especially the shrine of Venus. 
The theatre of Venus is also the house of Bacchus. 
Christian, thou must hate these things ! 

13. On such sweets let the world’s guests be fattened; 
the places, and the times, and the inviter to the feast are 
their own. Our feasts, our marriage, is not yet. We 
cannot sit down with the world, nor they with us. Things 
go by turns; now they are glad, and we are sorrowful. 

14. But what spectacle is that near at hand? It is the 
coming of the Lord, manifest, glorious, and triumphant. 
What is that joy of the angels ? what the glory of the 
rising saints? what the kingdom of the righteous? what 
the city of the new Jerusalem ? And there remain other 
spectacles; that last and eternal judgment-day, when all 
the ancient things of earth, and things just rising into 
existence, shall be consumed in one fire. 

15. It is prayer alone which overcometh God. 

16. Prayer is the wall of faith, our armour and weapons. 







CYPRIAN. 


C YPRIA N. 

BORN (ABOUT) 200—MARTYRED 258. 

t 

1. Christ willed to become what man is, in order that 
man might become what Christ is. 

2. Him therefore we accompany; Him we follow; 
Him have we for guide of our journey ; Source of light; 
Author of salvation, who promises heaven and the Father 
to them that believe. What Christ is shall we be, His 
imitators. 

3. Gaudiness of ornament and apparel are fit for none 
but the immodest. They are really richest in dress who 
are poorest amid their modesty. 

. 4. The foe flatters and misleads, transforms himself into 
an angel of light, and clothes his ministers as servants of 
righteousness. These are the maintainers of night for 
day, of death for life; giving despair while proffering 
hope—Antichrist under the name of Christ. 

5. He cannot possess Christ’s garment who splits and 
divides Christ’s Church. 

6. We need to be girded about, lest, when the day of 
march cometh, He find us hindered. Let us be awaiting 
the sudden advent of the Lord, that, when He knocketh, 
our faith may be on the watch, and win from the Lord 
the recompence of its watchfulness. 

7. Does he think himself a Christian who is ashamed 
or afraid to be one? Can he be joined to Christ who 



















WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


feels either the disgrace or the danger of belonging to 
Him. 

8. We pray for the coming of that our kingdom, which 
has been promised to us by God, and was gained by the 
blood and suffering of Christ, that we who have continued 
His subjects in the life below may reign in His kingdom 
according to His own word, ‘ Come, ye blessed, inherit 
the kingdom. ’ 

9. Riches are not only to be despised, but full of danger; 
in them is the root of seductive evils, misleading the blind¬ 
ness of the human heart by a subtle deception. 

10. If He prayed, who was without sin, how much more 
ought sinners to pray! If He offered continual prayer, 
the whole night long, how much more ought we to add 
prayer to prayer, and to watch thereunto by night! 

11. Let him fear to die who, not born of the Spirit, is 
the property of the eternal fire. Let him fear to die who 
is to pass from death here to the second death. 

12. In persecution, earth is shut, but heaven opens; 
Antichrist threatens, but Christ protects; death enters, 
but immortality ensues ; the world is taken from us, but 
Paradise is awarded; the life of time is quenched, but 
the life of eternity is accomplished. 

13. Let us consider, beloved brethren, that we have 
renounced the world, and are passing our time here as 
strangers and pilgrims. We embrace the day which 
assigns each to his home, which restores to Paradise and 
a kingdom, us who have been plucked from the world 
and set free from worldly snares. Who would not hasten 
home ? Paradise we count our fatherland, and the patri- 






CYPRIAN. 


15 


archs our fathers. Why should we not hasten homewards 
to salute our parents ? There the mighty multitude of 
dear ones awaits us,—the crowd of parents, brothers, sons, 
longs for us, already secure of their own safety, and now 
solicitous about ours. How great the joy to us and to 
them, of beholding and embracing each other ! What 
the blessedness of these celestial realms; without fear of 
death, and possessed of an eternity of life, how supreme 
and abiding the felicity ! There the glorious choir of 
apostles ; there the crowd of exulting prophets ; there the 
innumerable throng of martyrs crowned because of victory 
in conflict and suffering; there the triumphant virgins 
who subdued the desires of the flesh ; the compassionate 
rewarded, who, obeying their Lord’s command, transferred 
their earthly patrimony to a heavenly treasure-house. To 
these, brethren most beloved, with eager desire let us 
hasten, longing to be speedily with them and with Christ. 
These our desires and purposes, let our God, and our 
Lord Christ, behold, who will give the larger reward of 
His glory to those who after Him have had larger desires. 
















16 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


A THANA SI US. 

BORN 296—DIED 373. 

1. Miserable are those who measure the authority of a 
doctrine by the numbers receiving it. Truth always over¬ 
comes, though for a time it is found among the few. He 
who, for proof, betakes himself to numbers, confesses him¬ 
self conquered. Let me see the beauty of truth, and 
immediately I am persuaded. A multitude may overawe, 
but cannot persuade. How many myriads could per¬ 
suade me to believe that day is night, that poison is food ? 
In determining earthly things we do not regard numbers, 
shall we do so in heavenly things ? I reverence num¬ 
bers ; but only when they produce proof, not when they 
shun inquiry. Can you confirm a lie by numbers h 

2. He strips us of the raiment of skin which we put on 
in Adam, that, in its place, we might be clothed with 
Christ. He allows his garments to be divided, that we 
may have the undivided Word of the Father. 

3. The Saviour is delivered up, and being so, He shrinks 
not from death, but hastens to meet it, pursuing the flying 
serpent. 

4. It will matter little to the faithful what their sorrows 
may have been in this vain world, since no trace of them 
will remain when they enter on that ineffable peace which 
is in store for them in the life to come. 

5. I can do nothing without the help of God, and that 















ATHANASIUS . 


17 


from moment to moment; for when, so long as we are on 
the earth, is there a single instant in which we can say we 
are safe from temptation or secure from sin ? 

6. We need grace alike to keep us from breaking the 
weightiest commandment of the law, and from falling into 
the most trifling vanity of the age. 

7. The truly humble Christian does not inquire into his 
neighbour’s faults ; he takes no pleasure in judging them ; 
he is occupied wholly with his own. 

8. True religion abhors all violence ; she owns no argu¬ 
ments but those of persuasion. 

9. The will of Jesus Christ is, that those who belong to 
Him should walk exactly in his footsteps; that they should 
be, as He was, full of mercy and love; that they should 
render to no one evil for evil, but endure, for His sake, 
injuries, calumnies, and every outrage. To them all 
anger and resentment should be unknown. 

10. I would not have you ignorant that there is a 
second epiphany, illustrious and divine ; not in lowliness, 
but in His own glory; not in poverty, but in His own 
majesty; not to suffer, but to bestow the fruits of His 
cross, that is, resurrection and immortality; not to be 
judged, but to judge according to the things done in the 
body; to give the kingdom of the heavens to the righteous, 
but the everlasting fire and the outer darkness to the evil¬ 
doers. 


B 














WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


18 


MA CAR I US (THE EG YPTIAN). 

BORN 301—DIED 391. 

1. He who thinks favourably of himself, or highly of 
his own soul, because he has partaken of grace, has not 
yet begun to lay his foundation right. Consider Jesus: 
from what height did He, the Son of God, Himself God, 
descend ! and to what sufferings ! even to the death of 
the cross; for which humiliation He was exalted to sit at 
the right hand of the Father. 

2. The lowly man never falls ; for whither should he 
fall who is already below all men ? Wherefore, pride is, 
indeed, great lowness; but humility, great exaltation, 
dignity, and honour. 

3. Every soul that is without concern for itself, proves 
itself to be held by unbelief; through which it suffers day 
after day to pass by, without receiving the word. Often¬ 
times it buoys itself up with empty dreams, not sensible 
of the inward conflict, which is hidden from it by its own 
conceit; for conceit is the blindness of the soul, which 
will not suffer it to perceive its own infirmity. 

4- Every one is willingly captivated by the object 
which he loves, because he will not give up the whole of 
his love to God. Thus, one man loves his estates; 
another, his money ; another, eating, or some other bodily 
indulgence; another, skill in speech, for the sake of a 
fugitive glory; another loves command; another, honour 








MACARIUS. 


19 


and applause from men; another, anger and revenge, 
deeming it something noble to devote himself for his 
friends; another, idle companies; another, merely to be 
singular in conversation, or to propound doctrines to 
attract the admiration of men. One man yields himself 
up to indolence and unconcern ; another to the ornaments 
of dress; this one to sleep; that one to jests and witti¬ 
cisms ; and another to some other great or trifling object of 
this world, which holds and chains him down, and will 
not suffer him to raise himself up. 

5. Purity of heart cannot otherwise be effected than 
through Jesus; for He alone is the substantial and very 
Truth, and without that Truth it is impossible to come to 
the knowledge of truth, or to obtain salvation. 

6. If at any time, when we have received the word of 
the kingdom, we find ourselves moved thereby to; tears, 
let us not derive confidence from those tears, nor cherish 
any complacency in ourselves, as if we ourselves had 
sufficiently well employed our ears for hearing, or our eyes 
for reading; for there are other ears, other eyes, other 
tears, and another intelligence and soul, namely, those of 
the divine and heavenly Spirit, which must hear, and 
weep, and pray, and understand, and perform the will of 
God in us in truth. 

7. Woe to the soul that can receive no convincing 
sense of its wounds, and that thinks itself free from evil, 
only through the magnitude and excess of its evil! Such 
an one the Good Physician neither visits nor heals; foras¬ 
much as it cares not for its own wounds, but esteems itself 
to be healthful and sound. For ‘they that are whole 







20 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


need not a physician ’ (said He), ‘ but they that are 
sick.’ 

8. It behoves us vigilantly to look about us, and to 
observe on every side the machinations, deceits, and 
artifices of the enemy; for, as the Holy Spirit became in 
Paul ‘all things to all men, that he might gain all,’ so 
likewise the evil one strives ‘ to become all things,’ that he 
may impel all men to their destruction. For he affects 
to pray with those who pray, that he may seduce them 
into conceit by the opportunity of prayer; he fasts with 
those who fast, desiring thus to deceive them into a good 
opinion of themselves. In the same manner, he beguiles 
those who possess a knowledge of the Scriptures, wishing 
to ensnare them by the form of knowledge ; and so, also, 
those who have been gifted with any light of revelation. 
For Satan ‘ transforms himself into an angel of light,’ that, 
by the appearance of a false light, he may draw them to 
himself; and, in a word, he transforms himself into every¬ 
thing, and to every one, that he may subdue them by the 
speciousness of appearance, and so receive, them to 
destruction. 

9. The more the evil one discharges his fiery darts 
against us, the more it behoves us to inflame our hearts 
with faith in God; being well assured that it is all His will, 
in order to bring to proof the affection of those who truly 
love Him. 

10. A thousand years of this world, compared with 
that eternal world, are as if a man should compare a 
single grain of sand with all the sand upon the sea-shore. 
















EPHRAIM. 


EPHRAIM (THE SYRIAN). 

BORN (ABOUT) 310—DIED 379. 

1. Beloved, if you would strangle the lion, grasp him 
boldly, lest he crush you to pieces like an earthen vessel. 

2. He, who will not serve the Lord alone, must be the 
slave of many masters. 

3. Terrible would it be for me to perish with thirst, 
when supplying others with water ; which yet must be the 
case, if I do not discipline my own soul. 

4. By love, God the Word came upon earth ; by love, 
Paradise has been opened to us. Being enemies to God, 
by love we were reconciled. 

5. From my childhood I have been a vessel unprofit¬ 
able and dishonourable. Warning others, I have fallen 
into their evils twofold. Woe is me ! Whence can there 
be any refuge, unless the mercies of God shine quickly 
upon me % Nor is there one hope of salvation from 
works. While I speak of purity, I am thinking of un¬ 
cleanness ; while I am uttering rules for the conquest of 
the passions, my own are inwardly raging night and day. 

6. Shall I despair of salvation ? By no means. This 
the adversary desires in order to destroy me. I do not 
fling myself away. I trust in the mercies of God. I pray 
Thee, cast me not away ! Thou knowest the wounds of my 
soul ; heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed ! 

7. Do we neglect to call for his help when He loves 












22 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


and pities us? Hath He redeemed and enlightened us? 
He hath given us to see and taste His grace, that we might 
seek Him without ceasing. Happy he who hath tasted 
of His love, and seeks to be always filled with it. Filled 
with this love, he admits no other. 

8. Who would not love such a Master, worship Him, 
and confess His goodness ? From His immense height, 
and the blessed bosom of the Father, did He not descend 
to us ? The invisible became visible ! Oh wonder, full 
of fear and trembling;—a hand of clay, formed of the dust, 
smote the Creator of heaven and earth ! 

9. Blessed is he who shall be counted worthy to see 
that hour, in which all that loved the immortal Bride¬ 
groom are taken up into the clouds, to meet Him. 

10. I remembered that day (of Judgment), and trembled, 
and wept, till I had no more power to weep. 

11. My days have passed on and my iniquities have 
been multiplied. Woe is me, my Beloved ! O gracious 
lover of souls, by Thy compassions I adjure Thee, place 
me not at the left hand with the goats. Sinner as I am, 

I knock at thy door without ceasing; slothful though I be, 
yet I walk in Thy way. 

12. I beseech Thy goodness; heal my wounds and 
enlighten my understanding. Thou alone knowest how 
my soul thirsts after Thee, as a dry land. Send Thy 
grace, that I may eat and drink and be satisfied. Distil 
one drop of Thy love, that it may burn as liquid fire in 
my soul, and consume its thorns, even my evil lusts. 

















GREGORY (OF NAZIANZUM). 


GREGORY (OF NAZIANZUM). 

BORN 328—DIED 390. 

1. Is my body in health ? It wars against me. Is it 
sick ? I languish with it in sympathy. It is at once a 
companion that I love, and an enemy that I dread. It is 
a prison that terrifies me, a partner with whom I dwell. 

2. Such is the shortness of our life, that we pass out of one 
grave into another; out of the womb of our own mother into 
that of the earth, which is the common mother of us all. 

3. Do they cast us out of the city? They cannot cast 
us out of that which is in the heavens. If they who hate 
us could do this, they would be doing something real 
against us. So long, however, as they cannot do this, 
they are but pelting us with drops of water, or striking us 
with the wind. 

4. There is one life,—to look forward to the life above. 
There is one death,—sin; for it is this that destroys the 
soul. All things else, however prized by some, are the 
mere shadows of dreams, the phantoms of the mind. 

5. The predestined day is near. Sorrow is not immortal. 
Let us not aggravate our light griefs with ungenerous 
thoughts. If we have been bereaved of blessings, we 
have enjoyed them too. To be bereft is the lot of all; 
to enjoy, is not the lot of many. 

6. I exist;—what does that word mean? Teach me, 
O God. 







24 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


7. The only thing we have really to be afraid of, is 
fearing anything more than God. 

8. Wonder at the love of God ! He receives our 
prayers as if they were things of value. He longs that we 
should love Him; and he receives our petitions for bless¬ 
ings as favours done to Himself. He has greater joy in 
giving than we in receiving. 

9. Floods of tears flow from my eyes, but they cannot 
wash away my sin. 

ro. The paschal lamb of the Jews was a type of that of 
Christians. We have escaped the tyranny of Pharaoh. 
Crucified with Christ, we are also glorified with Him. He 
died ) we die with Him. He rose; we rise with Him. 
Let us sacrifice everything to Him who has sacrificed 
Himself for our redemption. Let us do for Him what 
He has done for us. 






BASIL. 25 


BA SIL. 

\ 

BORN 329—DIED 379. 

1. Life is a journey which commences when we enter 
the world, and ends at the grave. We are like voyagers 
on the ocean, wafted by winds towards the port, whilst 
asleep in the vessel, and who, insensible of the progress 
made, arrive there before they are aware. 

2. Angels are distributed around us in great numbers. 
They form an army, an encampment, according to the 
Scriptures; and a numerous army, a well-regulated camp, 
are not afraid of the attacks of the enemy. 

3. Never let us say of anything, it happened by chance; 
there is nothing that has not been fore-arranged, nothing 
which has not its own special end, by which it forms a 
link in the chain of appointed order. 

4. To blaspheme the Holy Ghost is to attribute His 
operations to the devil. 

5. Many go to hear a preacher, not as learners, but as 
spies, anxious to find out the weak parts of his discourse; 
and who, even in the Scriptures, seek matter for criticism, 
not edification. 

6. The slanderer harms three persons at once : him of 
whom he says the ill, him to whom he says it, and specially 
himself in saying it. 

7. The rose delights me; but I never look on it without 
remembering the sin that caused the earth to bring forth 
thorns, which before it knew not. 






26 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


8. Pray without ceasing; not in mere words, but in 
thought and desire, so that your life shall be one long and 
perpetual prayer. 

9. Has any one spoken evil of you ? Reply by bless¬ 
ings. Does he treat you ill ? Be patient. Does he per¬ 
secute you? Think of Jesus Christ. Can you suffer as 
he suffered ? 

10. The earth does not contain one inhabitant whose 
life is perfectly happy. Is there a stream whose waters 
are always clear ? It is God only who is happy, com¬ 
pletely and unchangeably. 

11. He calls Himself the Light of the w r orld, both to 
indicate the unapproachable glory of His Godhead, and 
to shew that He illuminates with the splendour of the 
knowledge of Himself the purged eyes of sinners. 

12. Christ was ‘ made of a woman.’ Not by mea?is of, 
but of a woman, to shew the identity of the nature pro¬ 
duced with that of hers who produced it. 

13. Life runs on in a continuous current, which carries 
us unconsciously along with it. We sleep, and as we do 
so, our brief space of time flies silently over our heads. 
We wake to a thousand cares, and, while struggling with 
them, life pursues its ever rapid course. 









JEROME. 


JEROME. 

BORN 331—DIED 420. 

1. Whether I am eating or drinking, or whatever I am 
doing, that voice seems always to sound in my ears, Arise, 
ye dead, and come to judgment. Whenever I think of 
that day of judgment, I tremble all over, heart and body. 
Whatever of pleasure there is in this present life, it is so 
to be tasted as that the day of coming judgment may 
never be lost sight of. 

2. He is rich enough who is poor with Christ. 

3. You err, my brother, you err, if you think that any¬ 
where a Christian is not to suffer persecution. Then 
chiefly are you assailed when you know not that you are 
assailed. 

4. Read again and again the divine Scriptures; nay, let 
the holy book never be out of your hands. Learn, that 
you may teach. 

5. Of Christ’s minister, let the mouth, the mind, the 
hands, be ever in harmony. 

6. Shun the feasts of the worldly; specially of those 
who are puffed up with honours. It is not seemly in a 
minister of the poor and crucified Christ, to have lictors 
and soldiers standing guard before his door. 

7. It will come, it will come, that day when as victor 
you shall return home; when as a crowned warrior you 
shall march through the heavenly Jerusalem. 








28 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


8. To be a Christian is the great thing, not to seem one. 

9. Far rather would I have pious rusticity than learned 
blasphemy. 

10. Lord, let me know myself, that I may better know 
Thee, the Saviour of the world. 

11. The economy of the world, visible and invisible, 
before and since creation, has reference to the coming of 
Jesus Christ to earth. The cross of Christ is the centre 
to which everything tends, the summary of the history of 
the universe. 

12. The praiseworthy thing is, not to have been at 
Jerusalem, but to have lived well there. The city which 
we desire, is not that which slew the prophets and shed 
the blood of Christ, but which the river of life gladdens ; 
which being set upon a hill cannot be hid ; which the 
apostle calls the mother of the saints, and in which he 
rejoices to have his citizenship with the just. 

13. The heavenly hall is equally accessible from Britain 
as from Jerusalem. 

14. O lust, thou infernal fire whose fuel is gluttony, 
whose flame is pride, whose sparkles are wanton words, 
whose smoke is infamy, whose ashes are uncleanness, 
whose end is hell! 

15. You walk as one loaded with gold ; beware of the 
robber. This life of ours is a race; here we strive, that 
hereafter we may be crowned. No one can walk securely 
amid serpents and scorpions. 

16. It is difficult for the human soul not to love some¬ 
thing ; and our affections must go out somewhere. Carnal 
love is overcome by spiritual love ; desire is quenched by 







JEROME. 


29 


desire ; and that which is lost on the one hand is gained 
on the other. Therefore cry out and say upon your 
couch, In the night I sought Him whom my soul 
loveth. 

17. Let the foolish virgins wander abroad, do you 
remain at home with the Bridegroom. 

18. Let the doors of your hearts be opened to Christ, 
but closed against the devil. 

19. Like Daniel, have your windows open to Jerusalem, 
whence the light shall enter, and you shall behold the 
city of the Lord. 













30 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


CHR YS0ST0M. 

BORN 347—DIED 407. 

1. The Book of the Evangelists is the history of the life 
and teaching of Jesus Christ. The book of the Acts is 
the record of what has been said and done by the Holy 
Spirit. 

2. Thus men, when a son is to shew himself at his 
coming to the estate and dignity, clothe even the servants 
with a new and bright garment, to glorify the heir,—so will 
God also clothe the creature with incorruption for the 
glorious liberty of the children. 

3. Prayer is a haven to the shipwrecked man, an anchor 
to them that are sinking in the waves, a staff to the limbs 
that totter, a mine of jewels to the poor, a healer of dis¬ 
eases, and a guardian of health. Prayer at once secures 
the continuance of our blessings, and dissipates the cloud 
of our calamities. O blessed prayer ! thou art the un¬ 
wearied conqueror of human woes, the firm foundation of 
human happiness, the source of ever-enduring joy, the 
mother of philosophy. The man who can pray truly, 
though languishing in extremest indigence, is richer than 
all beside; whilst the wretch who never bowed the knee, 
though proudly seated as monarch of all nations, is of all 
men the most destitute. 

4. There are charitable Christians, who are so drily,— 
barren fig-trees, with leaves only. There are also some 







CHRYSOSTOM. 31 


whose souls are narrow, who are charitable by fits, who 
will give once or twice and no more. Let us resemble the 
olive,—let us bring forth abundant fruits, the fruits of 
peace and mercy. 

5. We are ready to reckon up our trials, but are we 
equally so to keep account of the sins which draw them 
down upon us ? » 

6. You will perhaps be amazed when I tell you that it 
is not so necessary to watch against great crimes as against 
faults which may appear to us small and indifferent. 

7. There is not anything in the Scriptures which can be 
considered unimportant; there is not a single sentence of 
which does not deserve to be meditated on; for it is not 
the word of man, but of the Holy Spirit, and the least 
syllable of it contains a hidden treasure. 

8. A boat overladen sinks, so much wealth drowns men 
in perdition. 

9. A rock, though beaten on by winds and waves, is 
immoveable; so faith, grounded on the rock Christ, holds 
out in all temptations. 

10. The devil’s first assault is violent; resist that, and 
his second will be weaker; that being resisted, he proves 
a coward. 

11. Intemperance is a hydra with a hundred heads. She 
never stalks abroad unaccompanied with impurity, anger, 
and the most infamous profligacies. 

12. The venial faults, of which you take no account, 
become the root of the greatest crimes. 







WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


A UG US TINE. 

BORN 354—DIED 430. 

1. No one can be robbed of his delights whose joy is 
Christ. Eternal is his gladness who rejoices in an eternal 
good. 

2. Be not alarmed, O Christian, because the things 
believed are deferred ; although the promise has not come 
to light, let prayer persevere in hope. Press on in works, 
increase in holiness ; so shall the stedfastness of thy faith 
be proved, and the glory of the recompence be increased. 

3. God is said to remember when He does a thing, to 
forget when He does it not. For in God there can be no 
forgetfulness, seeing he changes not; neither can there be 
remembrance, because he forgets nothing. 

4. When thou doest good, do it cheerfully ; for whatever 
good thou doest sadly, it may be said to be done by thee, 
but thou doest it not. 

5. Faith opens a way for the understanding, unbelief 
closes it. 

6. God counts that free service, which not necessity 
but love dictates. 

7. Night does not extinguish the stars, so this world’s 
iniquity does not obscure the minds of believers clinging 
to the firmament of holy Scripture. 

8. The anger of God is no furious agitation, but the 
judgment, which awards punishment to the sin. 





AUGUSTINE. 


9. Let not man complain when suffering adversity; for 
by the bitterness of the lower he is taught the love of the 
higher. Let not the traveller going to his native land prefer 
the stable to his home. 

1 o. When shall I see that city whose streets are paved 
with pure gold, in which shall be sung the song of glad¬ 
ness, and through all the streets of which the hallelujah 
shall be uttered by all. O holy city! O beautiful city! 
from afar I salute thee, I cry for thee, I entreat for thee, 
I long to see thee, and to rest in thee; but kept still in 
the flesh, I am not permitted. O city to be longed for ! 
thy walls one gem, thy keeper God himself, thy citizens 
always rejoicing, for they exult in the vision of God. In 
thee there is no corruptibility, nor defect, nor old age, nor 
anger, but perennial peace and festal glory; joy everlasting, 
festival unbroken. In thee there is no yesterday nor to¬ 
morrow, but an unchanging to-day. To-morrow is as 
yesterday, and the long ago is eternally the same. To 
thee belong salvation, life, and endless peace. To thee 
God is all. In thee there is no fear, no sadness; each 
desire passes at once into joy ; all that is wished for is at 
hand, and all that is longed for abounds. 

11. Sigh for the eternal Jerusalem ! whither your hope 
has gone before, let your life follow. There we shall be 
with Christ. 

12. If you would be armed against temptation in the 
world, let the longing for the eternal Jerusalem grow and 
be strengthened in your hearts. Our captivity shall pass 
away, our felicity shall come, the last enemy shall be de¬ 
stroyed, and beyond death we shall triumph with our King. 


C 






WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


34 


FUL GENTIUS. 

BORN 468—DIED 533. 

1. There our love will not be less than our praise, nor 
our praise inferior to our love; for our praise will be full, 
because there will be in us the perfect love of God and of 
our neighbour. Then we shall praise and possess; we 
shall possess and love; then we shall be satisfied with 
delight, and delight with satiety. 

2. Then there will be in us true, perfect, lofty humility; 
since in the flesh and mind there shall remain no corrupt 
desire; the spirit shall not be exhausted with cares, nor 
the body wasted with labour. There shall be no more any 
anxiety about the conflict, but the perfect security of peace. 

3. This grace which God freely gives to the vessels of 
mercy, begins with illuminating the heart. It does not 
find man’s will good, but makes it so. It chooses first, in 
order that it may be chosen; nor is it received unless it 
first work in the heart of man. Therefore, both the recep¬ 
tion of grace and the desire for it are the work of grace 
itself. 

4. That men may become sons of God, they must 
receive the Son of God by faith ; and this power of believ¬ 
ing they receive from the Lord. 

5. Grace first chooses in order that it may be chosen. 
No man can desire or ask for, nay, not even so much as 
know it, unless it has first laid hold of him. 














FULGENTIUS. 


6. Let humility of mind grow in you. This is the true 
and genuine loftiness of a Christian. Know that the more 
humility of heart abounds in you, the more is the grace of 
God increasing. 

7. Let those who, in days of joy, have despised the 
compassion of God, when brought under the rod of disci¬ 
pline, tremble before his sorrow. 

8. It was necessary Christ should be both God and 
man, to work our redemption. As He was God, He was 
able; as He was man, He had aptness. No man nor 
angel could have effected it. Not man; for how could 
he, who was dead in sin, give life to others'? Not the 
angels; for they had not sufficiency to stand upright 
themselves. 

9. Though thou be in the dark, yet pray, for thy Father 
is light. Thou canst not lie hid from His eye; and, there¬ 
fore, neither faint in thy devotion nor dissemble in hypo¬ 
crisy, for thy God hears thee in secret as well as sees thee. 

10. Though thou be banished, yet Christ is thy asso¬ 
ciate; though amongst thieves or wild beasts, though at 

sea in tempests, or on land in troubles, though in hunger, 

• 

cold, or nakedness, thy Captain stands and sees the com¬ 
bating. Hold out, then, for He will crown thee. 

11. If he shall have judgment without mercy that hath 
not shewed mercy, what judgment shall he receive that 
hath done others injury? 

12. Christ died for men and angels: for men, that they 
might rise from sin; for angels, that they might not fall 
into sin. For them, that they might not be wounded; for 
man, that he might be healed of his wounds. He took 












WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


36 


infirmity from man, and gave confirmation to them. He 
was the wisdom of the Father to enlighten, the power of 
the Father to uphold. 

13. Let us be careful not to revenge our own wrongs, 
but remember that we ought to suffer much more than we 
do for the sake of Christ. 

14. The thoughts and affections do follow love’s direc¬ 
tion ; wherefore the Truth saith, ‘ Where your treasure 
is, there will your heart be.’ Therefore, if our treasure be 
in heaven, our affections will be in heaven. To lay up 
this treasure, mark thy thoughts; so thou shalt know thy 
treasure by thy love, and thy love by thy thoughts. 

15. If they go to hell, not because they took away the 
garment from the naked, but because they did not clothe 
them ; not because they took away the bread from the 
hungry, but because they did not give their bread to 
them,—what shall become of them who do not give nor 
clothe, but do strip off and rob the indigent'! Remem¬ 
ber the torment of the rich man, and relieve Lazarus, that 
thou mayest escape damnation. 

16. If barrenness be cast into the fire, what shall covet¬ 
ousness deserve! or what shall covetous rapacity receive, 
when want of charity shall be tormented in hell-fire! 








GREGORY (THE GREAT). 37 


GREGORY (THE GREAT). 

BORN 550—DIED 604. 

1. As the word of God exercises the understanding of 
the wise, so does it nourish the simple. It furnishes that 
with which the little ones may be fed; it contains that 
which higher minds may admire. It is a river both shal¬ 
low and deep, in which the lamb may have footing and the 
elephant may swim. 

2. As ointments, unless they are stirred, are not smelt 
afar off, and as aromatic scents do not give out their fra¬ 
grance unless they are burned, so it is in their tribulations 
that the saints give forth their excellencies. 

3. For the enlightening of the night of this present life, 
each star in its turn appears in the face of heaven, until 
towards the end of the night,—the Redeemer of man 
rises like the true Morning Star. In order that the radi¬ 
ance of the stars may suit itself to the darkness of our 
night, Abel comes to shew us guilelessness; Enoch to 
teach purity of practice; Noah to give lessons of endur¬ 
ance in hope and in work : Abraham to manifest obedi¬ 
ence ; Isaac to shew an example of chastity in wedded 
life; Jacob to introduce patience in labour; Joseph the 
repaying of evil with good; Moses for the shewing forth 
of meekness; Joshua to form us to confidence against 
difficulties ; Job to shew patience amid afflictions. Behold 
what sparkling stars we see in the sky, that our feet may 






38 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


never stumble as we walk this our night journey ! As 
many saints as He has raised up, so many stars has He 
sent forth into the sky, over the darkness of erring man, 
till the true Morning Star should rise, who, being the 
herald of the eternal morning, should outshine the other 
stars by the radiance of His Godhead. 

4. We sin with our lips two ways, either when we say 
unjust things, or withhold the just. 

5. At the appearing of the eternal Judge, the life of the 
church’s pilgrimage is completed. She then receives the 
recompence of her labours, when, having finished the time 
of her warfare, she returns to her native country. 

6. The dawn is the new birth of the resurrection, when 
the church rises to contemplate the vision of eternity; 
for, if the resurrection were not a birth, it would never 
have been said of it, ‘In the regeneration, when the 
Son of man shall sit upon the throne of His glory ’ 
(Matt. xix. 28). 

7. Good men dread prosperity in the world more than 
adversity. 

8. The Bridegroom hides Himself when sought, that, 
not being found, He may be sought for with the more 
ardent affection. 

9. We do not render true service to God so long as we 
obey from fear, and not from love. 

10. He that knows the grace of the Redeemer, and 
longs for a return to his native land, groans under the 
burden of his pilgrimage. He that loves to sojourn 
abroad, instead of his own country, knows not how to 
grieve even in the midst of grief. 







HILDEBERT. 


HILDEBER T. 

BORN 1057—DIED 1134. 

1. He came the first time in the guise of humanity; He 
is to come the second time in brightness, as a light to the 
godly, a terror to the wicked. He came the first time in 
weakness, He is to come the second time in might; the 
first time in our littleness, the second time in His own 
majesty; the first time in mercy, the second in judgment; 
the first time to redeem, the second to recompense, and 
recompense all the more terribly because of the long- 
suffering and delay. 

2. By the wisdom of the serpent we were deceived, by 
the wisdom of God we are delivered. The former is 
called wisdom, though it is our folly; the latter is called 
folly, though it is great and incomprehensible wisdom. 

3. The devil may advise, but cannot force, to sin. If 
the devil alone were advising, and God keeping silence, 
man might excuse himself. But God, by reason, by the 
Scriptures, by ministers, cries, Sin not. God is on the 
right hand, Satan on the left; man is in the midst. God 
persuades man to good, Satan dissuades; but man yields 
to the devil, not to God! 

4. Unhappy soul! Led captive by the devil, despised 
by man, forsaken by God ; after so many and so great 
apostasies, in which, forgetting thy Saviour, thou hast cast 
His words behind thy back, —turn and return from thy 






4 o WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


miserable and hurtful gladness to the spiritual and celestial 
joy, in the Lord Himself. 

5. Brethren beloved! ye have been sleeping, now awake; 
ye have lain long enough in sin. It is time to arise from 
sleep. Our sleep is the darkness of sin; and so long as 
we remain in sin, we dwell in darkness, and see not our 
wickedness. Let us come to the light; let us blush for 
our iniquity. Oh, what luxury amongst us! what intem¬ 
perance, what evil-speaking, what falsehood, what treachery 
to the Lord! We are of the day, because we have be¬ 
lieved ; because we have put on Christ. But he who is 
of the day, and yet walks naked, walks dishonourably. 
Put on the garments of holiness, lest ye be found naked 
in the presence of the Lord. Be ready, for in such an 
hour as ye think not the Son of Man will come. 

6. One thief is saved, and cries, ‘ Lord, remember me;’ 
the other, persisting in his sin, dies on the cross unsaved. 
How different these two ! Both intimate a coming judg¬ 
ment, in which, by His cross, Christ will save some, and 
condemn others. How different the paths ! One ascends 
to heaven, the other descends to hell. The one is an 
example to sinners, not to despair, seeing in the very hour 
of death Paradise is found. The other is a terror to the 
unbelieving and impenitent, who die in their sins. Yet 
equally near to both, and equally available for both, was 
the death of Christ. 

7. The day of our redemption is at hand; the deliver¬ 
ance from captivity begins. It is now time that, as the 
true Jacob, we feast our Isaac—at whose nativity God 
made our Sarah to laugh—on the best and choicest of our 







HILDEBERT. 


dainties, lest we be condemned for our thanklessness. To 
the great Father of the family, whose guests we are, let 
us present the offerings of faith, righteousness, and meek¬ 
ness, for with the proud He will not eat. They who so 
eat and drink are His friends just now, and, in the time 
to come, His best beloved, when, from being Jacob, they 
shall become Israel; from being wrestlers with God, they 
shall be beholders of God; from faith they shall pass to 
knowledge; from their journey to their home ; from their 
race to their rest; where they shall be satisfied with the 
abundance of God’s house, and drink of the river of His 
pleasures. 







42 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


BERNARD. 

BORN 1091—DIED 1157. 

1. Suppose that you may be righteous overmuch, or 
wise overmuch, you cannot be good overmuch. Nowhere 
do I read, Be not ‘good overmuch;’ for no one can be 
better than he ought. God only seeks not to be better 
than Himself, because He cannot be so. 

2. If, in everyday warfare, we yield, what will we do 
in the great conflict ? If our weakness gives way before 
frail reeds, how shall we withstand the weapons of steel 1 ? 

3. It is the devil’s part to suggest; ours, not to consent. 
As often as we resist him, so often we overcome him; as 
often as we overcome him, so often we bring joy to the 
angels and glory to God. 

4. O sons of Adam, O covetous generation, what have 
you to do with earthly riches, which are neither true nor 
yours ! Gold and silver are genuine earth, red and white, 
which only man’s folly makes, or rather reckons, precious. 
If they be yours, carry them with you. 

5. We discover glory in the cross. To us who are 
saved, it is the power of God, the source of all holiness. 

6. My heart is a vain heart; a vagabond and unstable 
heart, seeking rest, finding none. It agrees not with itself; 
it alters its purposes, changes its judgments, frames new 
thoughts, pulls down the old, then builds them up again ; 
it wills, and wills not, never remaining the same. 






BERNARD. 


43 


7. Happy art thou, if thy heart be possessed with three 
fears : a fear for grace received; a greater fear for grace 
lost; a still greater fear to recover grace. 

8. Happy is he alone, to whom the Lord imputeth not 
sin. To have Him propitious to me, against whom alone 
I have sinned, suffices for all my righteousness. If my 
iniquity is great, Thy grace is much greater. When my 
soul is troubled at the view of its sinfulness, I look at Thy 
mercy, and am refreshed. It is a common good; is 
offered to all; and he only who rejects it, is deprived of 
its benefits. Let him rejoice who feels himself a wretch 
deserving of perpetual damnation ; for the grace of Jesus 
exceeds the number of all crimes. There is no sin greater 
than to despair of the forgiveness of sin; for God is kind 
and merciful, ready to forgive. 

9. We know another Jerusalem than that in which 
David reigned, richer by far, more glorious by far. 

10. Not in the royal city of Jerusalem was Jesus born, 
but in Bethlehem, which is the least among the thousands 
of Judah. O little Bethlehem, made glorious by the Lord, 
even by Him who, though great, in thee was made little ! 
Rejoice, O Bethlehem, and through all thy streets let the 
festal hallelujah be sung. 

11. Wonderful things I say, yet true. The Lord of 
hosts Himself, King of glory, shall descend to change our 
bodies, and make them like His body of brightness. How 
great will be that glory, how unutterable the exultation, 
when the Creator of the universe, who came lowly and 
hidden, to deliver souls, shall come in unveiled glory, to 
glorify thee, O miserable flesh ! 













WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


TA ULER. 

BORN 1290—DIED 1361. 

1. In the case of a pertinacious disputant, allow him to 
triumph; of a contumacious one, give way by silence; 
thus both parties will preserve their tranquillity. 

2. Love is the shortest and swiftest way to God ; nor is 
there any sweetness in virtue without love, for love is the 
essence of all virtues. Through the exercise of this love, 
man comes to such self-abhorrence as not only to despise 
himself, but to be content to be despised by others ; nay, 
counts this contempt all joy. 

3. As a sculptor is said to have indignantly exclaimed 
on seeing a rude block of marble, ‘ What godlike beauty 
thou hidest!’ Thus God looks upon man, in whom God’s 
own image is hidden. 

4. We may begin by loving God in hope of reward ; we 
may express ourselves concerning him in symbols; but we 
must throw them all away, and, much more, must we 
scorn all idea of reward, that we may love God only, be¬ 
cause He is the supreme good, and contemplate His 
eternal nature as the substance of our own soul (that is, 
as the God in whom we live and move and have our 
being). 

5. If a man truly loves God, and has no will but to do 
God’s will, the whole force of the river Rhine may run at 
him, and will not disturb him nor break his peace. If we 







TAULER . 45 


find outward things a danger and disturbance, it comes 
from our appropriating to ourselves what is God’s. 

6. The friends of God find the truth unknown to 
others. Wherefore, beloved children, the masters of Paris 
diligently read the books and turn over the leaves; this is 
something; this is pretty well. But these men read the 
true living book, where all is life. 

7. Know that shouldest thou let thyself be stabbed a 
thousand times a day, and come to life again; shouldest 
thou let thyself be strung to a wheel, and eat thorns and 
stones; with all this, thou couldest not overcome sin of 
thyself. But sink thyself into the deep unfathomable 
mercy of God, and Christ will give it thee out of his great 
kindness, and free goodness, and love, and compassion. 

8. Wouldest thou master the flesh % Lay upon it the 
curb and fetters of love. With that thou wilt overcome it 
easiest of all, and with love thou wilt load it heaviest of all. 

9. We must seek God by Himself; and this foretaste 
of the great, true wedding, many people would fain have, 
and complain that it cannot be. And if they experience 
no wedding when they pray, and find not God’s presence 
in spiritual exercises, it vexes them; they say they have 
no experience of God; and they grow weary of their 
painstaking and praying. This a man should never do ; 
for God was present though we perceived Him not. He 
went secretly to the wedding; and, where God is, there is 
the wedding; and He cannot be away from it. Where a 
man simply thinks of Him, and seeks Him alone, there 
God must, of necessity, be, either sensibly or in a hidden 
manner. 






46 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


PETRARCH . 

BORN 1304—DIED 1374. 

1. If tears become any one when dying, it is him whom 
laughter did not become when living; seeing he saw that 
which makes death a thing to be wept, ever at hand, and 
suspended above his head. How closely did this weeping 
follow upon that laughter ! 

2. To the eternal tribunal of the just Judge our appeal 
is safe. He will rescind the unjust judgment. 

3. In all good studies I delighted; but was specially 
given to philosophy and poetry, which even, however, I 
neglected in process of time, being delighted with the 
Holy Scriptures, in which I perceived a hidden sweetness 
which I once despised. Poetry I reserved as for orna¬ 
mental purposes alone. 

4. As truth is immortal, so a lie lasts not; feigned things 
are soon discovered, as the hair that is combed and set 
with great diligence is ruffled with a little blast of wind. 
The craftiest lie cannot stand before the truth; everything 
that is covered is soon uncovered; shadows pass away; 
and the native colour of things remains. No man can 
live long under water; he must needs come forth and shew 
the face which he concealed. 

5. Desire and strive to die well, which cannot be with¬ 
out living well. The rest commit to God, who brought 
you into this world unasked, but who, when you are about 





PETRARCH. 47 


to leave it, will not introduce you to His kingdom 
unsought. 

6. Impatient of disease, do you wish for death? Foolish 
and proud ! Allow Him who made your body to deter¬ 
mine all things concerning it. Only the use of it, not 
lordship over it, have you received; and that only for a 
short time. Think you that you are lord of your clayey 
mansion? You are but a tenant. He who made all things, 
He is its Lord. 

7. To many, liberty is servitude; to others, servitude is 
liberty. The yoke of care is worse than the yoke of men; 
yet he who has shaken off the one, bears the other 
patiently! 

8. Where you are is of no moment, but only what you 
are doing there. It is not the place that ennobles you, 
but you the place ; and this only by doing that which is 
great and noble. 

9. You fear to die in your sins? But who is to blame 
but yourself? Who compelled you to sin ? Who forbade 
you to have it washed away ? Who hinders your repent¬ 
ance, however late ? Carry not your sins away with you. 
There is still time; and He still lives who takes them 
away and blots them out, who casts them behind His 
back, and removes them from you as far as the east is 
from the west. 

« 















48 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


WICLIFFE. 

BORN 1324—DIED 1384. 

1. Have a remembrance of the goodness of God : how 
He made thee in His own likeness, and how Jesus Christ, 
both God and man, died so painful a death upon the 
cross, to buy man’s soul out of hell, even with His own 
heart’s blood, and to bring it to the bliss of heaven. 

2. Bethink thee heartily of the wonderful kindness of 
God, who was so high and so worshipful in heaven, that 
He should come down so low, and be born of the maiden, 
and become our brother, to buy us again, by his hard pas¬ 
sion, from our thraldom to Satan. 

3. See the great kindness which God hath shewn for 
thee, and thereby learn thy own great unkindness; and thus 
thou shalt see that man is the most fallen of creatures, and 
the unkindest of all creatures that God ever made. It 
should be full sweet and delightful to us to think thus on 
this great kindness and this great love of Jesus Christ. 

4. We are predestinated that we may obtain divine ac¬ 
ceptance and become holy; having received that grace 
through Christ’s taking human nature, whereby we are 
rendered finally pleasing to God. And it appears that this 
grace, which is called the grace of predestination, or the 
charity of final perseverance, cannot by any means fail. 

5. That shall be a dreadful doom and a fearful Dooms- 
man. For Christ, who shall be Judge there, is now meek 







WICLIFFE. 


49 


as a lamb, and ready to bow to mercy; but there He will 
be stern as a lion to all that are damnable, and shall doom 
according to righteousness. Before this stern Doomsman 
all men and women shall yield reckoning of all their liv¬ 
ing on earth. 

6. Have mind that when thou wert a child of wrath 
and of hell, for the sin of Adam, Christ laid his life to 
pledge, to bring thee out of that prison ; and He gave not 
as ransom for thee either gold or silver, or any other jewel, 
but his own precious blood that ran out of his heart. This 
should move all Christian men to have mind of God, and 
to worship Him in thought, word, and deed. 

7. The Father defendeth every soul that is true to Him 
from the power of the fiend (devil) who would overset it; 
and granteth it through His grace to be an heir of heaven. 

8. Christ teacheth us in this prayer to ask the dreadful 
time of doom, in which the kingdom of God shall fully 


1 come 



D 





50 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 

1 


CHA UCER. 

BORN 1328—DIED UOO. 

1. Certainly there is no sin in man so horrible, but may, 
in this life, be taken away, through virtue of the passion 
and of the death of Christ. Alas ! what need men then 
to be despaired, sith that his mercy is so ready and large! 
Ask, and have. 

2. For certainly, in this world, there is no wight that 
may be kept sufficiently without the keeping of our Lord 
Jesus Christ. 

3. Many are the ways spiritual that lead folk to our 
Lord Jesus Christ, and to the reign of glory. Of which 
ways, there is a full noble way, which may not fail to man 
nor woman that through sin hath misgone from the right 
way of Jerusalem celestial; and this way is called Repent¬ 
ance. 

4. O good God, well ought man to have great disdain 
of sin, sith that through sin he who was free from sin was 
made bound. 

5. Sith that Jesus Christ took on him the pain of all our 
wickednesses, much ought sinful man to weep and bewail 
that, for his sins, God’s Son of heaven should all this pain 
endure. 

6. Certainly God Almighty is all good; and, therefore, 
either He forgiveth all sin, or else right nought. 

7. Though no earthly man may eschew all sins, yet may 






CHAUCER. 


5 i 


he refrain them, by the burning love that he hath to our 
Lord Jesus Christ. 

8. Do many good works, and speak few vanities. 

9. Jesus Christ is entirely all good; in Him is none 
imperfection; and, therefore, either He forgiveth all sin 
perfectly, or else, never a deal. 

10. Men should remember them of the shame that is to 
come at the day of doom, to men that be not penitent 
and forgiven in this present life; for all the creatures in 
earth and in hell shall see openly what has been hid in 
this world. 

11. Full oft time I read, that no man trust in his own 
perfection, be he stronger than Samson, or holier than 
Daniel, or wiser than Solomon. 

12. Thou shalt understand also that God ordained 
fasting ; and to fasting pertaineth four things : gifts to 
poor folk; gladness of heart spiritual; not to be angry or 
annoyed ; nor to grudge that he fasteth. 

13. One doubt cometh of this, that he deemeth he hath 
sinned so greatly, and so oft, and so long lain in sin, that 
he shall not be saved. Against that cursed doubt he 
should think, that the suffering of Jesus Christ is more 
strong to unbind, than sin is strong to bind. As often as 
he falleth he may rise again; and, though he hath lain 
never so long in sin, the mercy of Christ is alway ready to 
receive him to mercy. 

14. Let men understand what is the fruit of all, after the 
words of Jesus Christ. It is an endless bliss of heaven. 
There joy hath never end; there is no woe nor grievance; 
there all harms of this present life hath passed ; there, as 















53 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


there is security from the pain of hell, so there is the 
blissful company that rejoice evermore, every one of 
others’ joy; there the body of man, that sometime was 
foul and dark, is more clear than the sun; there the 
body, that sometime was sick, frail, feeble, and mortal, 
is immortal, and strong, and whole; there is neither 
hunger, thirst, nor cold, but every soul replenished with 
the sight of the perfect knowing of God. To which life 
may He bring us that bought us with His precious blood. 
Amen. 














► THOMAS (A KEMPIS). 


THOMAS (A KEMPIS). 

BORN 1330—DIED 1471. 

1. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity, except only the love 
of God, and an entire devotedness to His service. 

2. What have redeemed souls to do with the distinctions 
and subtleties of logic? He whom the Eternal Word 
condescends to teach is disengaged at once from the laby¬ 
rinth of human opinions. 

3. O God, who art the truth, make me one with Thee 
in everlasting love ! I am often weary of reading and 
weary of hearing; in Thee alone is the sum of all my 
desires. Let all teachers be silent, let the whole creation 
be dumb before Thee, and do Thou only speak to my 
soul. 

4. To place thyself lower than all mankind can do thee 
no hurt; but much hurt may be done by preferring thyself 
to a single individual. 

5. We might enjoy much peace, if we did not busy our 
minds with what others do and say, in which we have no 
concern. But how is it possible for that man to dwell 
long in peace, who continually intermeddles in the affairs 
of others; who runs about seeking occasions of dis¬ 
quietude, and never, or but seldom, turns to God, in the 
retirement of a recollected spirit ? 

6. It is good for a man to suffer the adversity of this 
earthly life, for it brings him back to the sacred retirement 





54 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


of the heart, where only he finds that he is an exile from 
his native home, and ought not to place his trust in any 
worldly joy. 

7. It is by gradual advances, rather than impetuous 
efforts, that victory is obtained; rather by patient suffer¬ 
ing, that looks to God for support, than by impatient 
solicitude and rigorous austerity. 

8. In judging others, a man labours to no purpose; 
commonly errs, and easily sins; but, in examining and 
judging himself, he is always wisely and usefully employed. 

9. If thou art not able to make thyself that which thou 
wishest to be, how canst thou expect to mould another in 
conformity to thy will ? 

10. If thou canst refrain from unnecessary conversation 
and idle visits, and suppress the desire of hearing and 
telling some new thing, thou wilt find not only abundant 
leisure, but convenient opportunity for holy and useful 
mediation. 

11. No man can safely go abroad who does not love 
to stay at home; no man can safely speak who does not 
willingly hold his tongue; no man can safely govern that 
would not willingly become subject. 

12. The closet, long continued in, becomes delightful; 
but, when seldom visited, it is beheld with reluctance, 
weariness, and disgust. 

13. If thou hadst never gone abroad and listened to 
idle reports, thou hadst continued safe in the possession of 
peace. 

14. He that loves with purity considers not the gift of 
the lover, but the love of the giver. 











THOMAS (A KEMPIS). 55 


15. O Lord God, I esteem it a signal mercy that I do 
not possess many of those qualities and.. endowments 

which, in the eyes of men, appear glorious, and attract 

\ 

admiration and applause. 

16. What can be more at rest than the heart that, in 
simplicity and singleness, regardeth only Thee ? 

17. We ask whether such a man be a profound scholar, 
or an eloquent writer; but how poor in spirit he is, how 
patient, how meek, how holy, how resigned, we regard as 
questions of no importance. 

18. My God! my all! enough to say for him that 
understandeth; and often to say it, delightful to him that 
loveth. 

19. How often has the growth of holiness been checked 
by its being too hastily known and too highly commended. 

20. O my God, soften the rigour of my banishment 
and assuage the violence of my sorrow! 















56 WORDS OLD AND NEW,\ 


HUSS. 

BORN 1376—MARTYRED 1415. 

i. Truly it is a serious thing to rejoice without perturba¬ 
tion, and to count all joy in manifold trials. It is easy to 
speak of and to expound this, but to fulfil it is a serious 
thing. The most enduring and bravest of soldiers, though 
knowing that on the third day He was to rise, and by death 
overcome His enemies, yet after the Last Supper, was 
troubled in spirit, and said, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, 
even unto death. 

. 2. I protest that I have never felt myself overwhelmed 
by persecution; that I am only borne down by my sins, 
and by the errors of the Christian people. 

3. What are the riches of the world to me ! What 
affliction can their loss cause me ! What is it to me to 
lose the favour of the world, which makes us swerve from 
the path of Christ ! What signifies infamy, which, when 
supported with humility, proves, purifies, and illuminates 
the children of God in such a manner that they shine like 
the bright sun in their Father’s kingdom ! And lastly, 
what is death, should this miserable life be torn from me ! 
He who loses it in this world triumphs even over death, 
and finds true life in the next. 

4. I do not desire to live in this corrupted age, unless 
I can lead to repentance myself and others, according to 
the will of God. 








huss: 


57 


5. Pontiffs and priests, Scribes and Pharisees, Herod 
and Pilate, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, condemned 
the Truth; they crucified and buried it; but it rose from 
the tomb and conquered them all, sending forth in its 
stead twelve preachers of the word. 

6. Strengthen your hearts, dearly beloved, for the coming 
of our Lord Jesus Christ is nigh. Think how the Son of 
God," Himself God eternal, became man in order to help 
us. The immortal Physician came to heal our incurable 
sores. The all-powerful Lord came, not to trouble the 
dead, but to vivify the living, and redeem His elect from 
eternal death. 

7. Mediate on those benefits which our Lord has heaped 
on us by His first coming, and strengthen your hearts, for 
His second coming is near, and with it the sentence of the 
great Judge, infinitely wise, infinitely just, infinitely formid¬ 
able, from whom neither the great nor the learned of this 
world can escape ; with whom will come the just, the 
preachers of His word, and all who have been unjustly 
persecuted in this world. 

8. Study to avenge the insults offered to God, rather 
than your own. Alas ! it is in this point that the whole 
world is mistaken, for all men are more ready to avenge 
their own injuries than those of God. 

9. Now the saints no longer suffer anxieties and tor¬ 
ments, but enjoy a sweet and unchangeable peace, as well 
as infinite joy. Peter and Paul reign already with the 
King of heaven ; they are with the angelic choir ; they be¬ 
hold the King of kings in His magnificence; no sorrows 
afflict them; they are filled with ineffable happiness. 




58 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


SA VONAROLA . 

BORN 1452—DIED 1498. 

1. Do you wish I should preach well? Give me time 
to converse with my children. ‘ In this way,’ said Savona¬ 
rola, 1 1 have learned much, for God ofttimes speaks and 
expounds His revelations by these simple youths, as by 
pure vessels full of the Holy Spirit.’ 

2. What is Babylon but Rome ? Babylon signifies con¬ 
fusion. There is not in the world greater confusion of 
crimes and all sorts of iniquity than at Rome. Since they 
have made it a dwelling for harlots, God will make it a 
stall for swine and horses! 

3. O Lord, delay not, that the unbelievers and the 
wicked may not say, ‘ Where is the God of these men, who 
have so often repented and fasted ?’ Thou seest the bad 
become every day worse, and now they seem to have 
become incorrigible. Stretch forth, stretch forth Thy 
hand, Thy mighty arm ! I can do no more—I think not 
what more to say. There is nothing left for me but to 
weep. I would dissolve in tears upon this pulpit. I ask 
not, O Lord, that thou shouldst hear us for our merits, but 
for Thy mercy, for the love of Thy Son. Look upon the 
face of Thine Anointed, have compassion on Thy sheep. 
Dost Thou see them here, all afflicted, all persecuted ? 
Dost thou not love them, O my God? Didst Thou not 
become incarnate for them? Wert thou not crucified, 






SA VONAROLA. 59 

didst Thou not die for them ? If I cannot prevail—if this 
work is too much for me, recall my soul—take me away, 
O Lord ! release me from life. What have thy sheep 
done? They have done nothing. I am the guilty one ; 
yet, O Lord, have not respect to my sins, have respect 
this once to Thy loving-kindness, Thy tenderness, Thy 
bowels of mercies, and let us feel all Thy compassion. 

4. When any one begins to enjoy the Holy Spirit, he is 
glad to be alone, and immediately separates himself from 
other comforts and corporeal recreations, which would not 
be, if he did not feel within his heart greater consolations 
than those he refuses. 

5. The old chaste time of the first Church has departed. 
Rome, polluted with all vices, rushes on towards a second 
fall. But to denounce her condition, is only to excite 
fruitless enmity. Nothing then remains, but to lament 
silently, and to hold fast the hope of a better future. 

6. O infinite love! I have grievously sinned, and Thou, 
Jesus, wert stricken. I have been Thine enemy, and Thou, 
Jesus, for love of me, wert nailed to the cross. 

7. In spiritual life we must fix our hearts on the love of 
Jesus Christ before everything, if we would proceed regu¬ 
larly in good works. 

8. Would you see how one place or state is not more 
advantageous than another to the careless man? Judas 
the disciple of Christ was wicked; the school of Christ 
availed him not. 

9. Many have been victorious in great temptations, and 
ruined by little ones. 

10. Wonder ye that the good work has so many ene- 














6 o WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


mies? Even Christ had constantly to contend with the 
Pharisees and Scribes. 

11. The pillars of the church are cast down upon the 
earth, and evangelic doctrine is heard no more. The gold 
of the temple is gone ; the true divine wisdom, which en¬ 
lightens and gladdens the heart. The roof of the church 
has fallen in • in the storm and the whirlwind are swept 
away the devout priests and princes, who adorn the bride 
of Jesus. The binding lime and mortar fail. Where seest 
thou now-a-days true love among Christians'? No more 
are they united in Christ Jesus—therefore no one seeks 
the good of the other, but each one only his own. All the 
walls of the Church are undermined. 

12. In the primitive Church were the chalices of wood, 
and the prelates of gold; in our days, the prelates are of 
wood, and the chalices of gold. 

13. We stand on the battle-field, but doubt not that we 
shall conquer at last, and in every way, even dying; and 
in death shall fight more successfully than in life. 

14. This morning thought I, that I should go to heaven, 
but the hope is delayed. Thou, who suspectest that I 
perhaps have had fears, knowest thou not that faith fears 
nothing? He who hath faith stands where the men of the 
world cannot reach, where the sword and dagger of the 
enemy come not. 

15. Oh wonderful power of hope, before whom all 
sorrows yield, all ready consolation comes ! 

16. Take away, Lord, my sins, and I am freed from all 
trouble. Yes! set me free, not according to my righteous¬ 
ness, but according to thy mercy! 






ERASMUS. 


ERA SAT US. 

BORN 1467—DIED 1536. 

' . '. t ] . ’ _) 

1. Though thou hadst gotten six hundred teachers, yet 
it is the Lord that doth truly and effectually teach this 
philosophy and wisdom. 

2. Faith is the door whereby we enter into the house 
of God. 

3. Faith purgeth the heart, and love straighteneth the 
crooked and corrupt will. Faith judgeth and teacheth 
what is to be done ; love executeth the same as the ser¬ 
vant of faith. Faith is a gift put into man’s mind, through 
which he does, without any doubtfulness, believe all those 
things to be true which God has taught and promised us. 
Faith is the most sure knowledge that is in the world. 

4. Whom can that most meek and gentle Lamb refuse 
or reject, who, when the thief hanging on the cross did 
own Him, forthwith did bid him to the bridal feast, and, of 
a blaspheming sinner, made him an heir of His kingdom? 

5. This life is a battle; whether we will or not, we 
cannot choose but fight, either on God’s side or the 
devil’s. 

6. Nothing quiets the mind of man, save only the grace 
of Christ. 

7. The eye of faith is a simple dove’s eye, reverently 
beholding God in the manner in which it is His pleasure 
to be known of us. 





62 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


8. He hath come once for all. He hath once for all 
finished that singular and marvellous sacrifice with the 
commemoration of which He would have us nourished 
until He come again the second time, not to be then a 
Redeemer, but a Judge and Rewarder. 

9. Christ was eternally the Son of God; but, after He 
was conceived by the Holy Ghost, His blessed soul was 
full of all heavenly grace. But, though He might thus be 
called twice born, once of His Father, without time, and 
before all time, and again of His mother, in the time 
appointed by God, yet are there not two sons, but only 
one Son. He was conceived of the substance of the 
virgin, that we should acknowledge the verity of His 
human nature. 

10. Our Lord took on Him, not only the verity of man’s 
nature, but also the miseries which accompany the nature 
of man fallen, those things only excepted which are not 
suitable to the dignity of the Person who was both God 
and man, or else which do exclude the fulness of grace. 
For neither did He receive proclivity or readiness to do 
sin, nor the power to sin; neither did He take unto Him 
error or ignorance. And those incommodities which He 
took, He took not of the necessity of nature, but volun¬ 
tarily for our sake, to make satisfaction for our offences, 
and to suffer for that which we had trespassed. 

11. There are three Sabbaths. The first was the Sab¬ 
bath of God alone, without us. The second is ours, by 
His love and goodness, but imperfect here in this life. 
The third Sabbath is perfect in the world to come. 













BE VALENTIA. 63 


JACOBI DE VALENTIA.* 

BORN 1468—DIED 1491. 

1. O Lord, think not upon my sins, but think upon Thy 
mercy, which is greater than all my sins and transgressions. 

2. The faith of the church, under both Testaments, is 
the same. The faith which saves us is the same that saved 
the ancient fathers. For, as it is the same Christ that is 
believed by us and by them, so it is the same faith. There 
is this difference only—that the mystery of the incarnation 
and redemption, which, we believe, is completed ; to them 
it was future. But yet, as we believe that no one can be 
delivered from sin, save by the blood and passion of 
Christ, so did the fathers believe. 

3. The sacrifice of the morning and evening lamb, of 
itself, brought no grace, nor did it purge away sin. But, 
through means of the blood of the coming Christ, thus 
prefigured, they received deliverance from sin who, when 
offering their sacrifice, believed in the blood to come. 
Thus it was alone their faith and hope in a coming Christ 
that delivered them from guilt. 

4. Thus David prayed because he believed; for faith 
goes before all prayer. 

5. As the divine Word assumed this flesh and human 
nature, in the unity of His person, that He might suffer in 

* We translate these gems from the author’s Commentary on the 
Psalms and Song of Solomon; a rare old Latin quarto. 








64 WORDS OLD AND NEW, 


it (which person is called one Christ, God and man), so 
this Christ assumed, and united, and espoused to Himself 
the whole Church and community of believers into the 
unity of His mystical body, that He might suffer for it. 
Thus Christ and the Church are called one mystical man 
and one mystical Christ, whose head is this true Christ, 
and whose body or members are the whole Church of the 
faithful. Thus Christ is called the Bridegroom and Head 
of the Church. 

6. Christ is the object and the subject of all our theo¬ 
logy, and of Holy Scripture. 

7. As Christ is the dispenser of grace, so is He the giver 
of rewards. As God, through Christ, called and justified 
those whom He predestinated from eternity, so it is meet 
that, through Christ, He should bestow the glory, the 
blessedness, and the honour. Thus Christ is in all things 
the mediator between God and man. Seeing He is the 
Intercessor, the Surety, the Interpreter, so is He the 
Leader, the Judge, the Re warder. 

8. As Christ is the Head of the Church and of all 
believers, from whom flows down all virtue and all grace 
to all the members, so the devil is head and chief of all 
the wicked and unbelieving. Unbelievers are members of 
the devil; and as of Christ and the Church is fashioned 
one mystical body, so of the devil and Church, or syna¬ 
gogue of Satan is composed one devilish body. 

9. Since His ascension, the Bridegroom has not spoken 
personally and familiarly to His bride, but through a 
medium; and this is to last till His second coming, when 
He will speak to us. Then will He introduce His bride 





DE VALENTIA. 65 


to the nuptials of glory. Then the Bride will speak per¬ 
sonally to the Bridegroom the words of praise; and the 
Bridegroom shall rejoice over the Bride, without a medium, k 
listening to her voice. 

10. The first nuptials were those of redemption, and 
incarnation, and mystical union. To these the Bride¬ 
groom called the Bride on His first advent. The second 
nuptials are those of glory, to which He calls her at His 
second coming. 

11. Delivering her from this mundane misery, He will 
place His church upon the mountains of the spices of 
celestial bliss. Make haste, my Beloved, to these moun¬ 
tains, and, in making haste, take me with Thee. Make 
haste, and I will follow ! 



E 





66 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


LA TIMER. 

BORN 1480—DIED 1555. 

1. As he is a good Augustine friar that keeps well St 
Augustine’s rules, so he is a good Christian man that 
keeps well Christ’s rule. 

2. Christ saith, ‘ Come to Me.’ Let us follow this 
word, and let us come to Him; for the faith that hath 
God’s word is a true faith; but that faith which hath not 
God’s word is a lying faith, a false faith. 

3. I doubt not but that I have been laughed to scorn 
when I have preached that the way to get riches is to give 
away to the poor what we have. They have called me an 
old doating fool; but what then 1 We must be content to 
be despised with Christ in this world, that we may be 
glorified with Him in yonder world. 

4. The love of God towards mankind passeth all natu¬ 
ral love; and He is ready to give unto every one that 
cometh to Him for help; yea, He will give us the very 
Holy Ghost when we desire it. 

I 

5. Embrace Christ’s cross, and Christ shall embrace 
you. 

6. I pray you note this, we must first be made good 
before we can do good ; we must first be made just before 
our words can please God. 

7. If thou art desirous to know whether thou art chosen 
to everlasting life, thou mayest not begin with God, for 






LA TIMER. 67 


God is too high, thou canst not comprehend Him; but 
begin with Christ, and learn to know Christ, and where¬ 
fore He came, namely, that He might save sinners. 

8. The woman came to Him among the press of the 
people, desiring to touch only the hem of His garment; 
for she believed Christ was such a healthful man, that she 
should be sound as soon as she might touch Him. All 
England, yea, all the world, may take this woman for a 
schoolmistress, to learn by her to trust in Christ, and to 
seek help at His hands. 

9. Faith brings Christ, and Christ brings remission of 
sins ; but how shall we obtain faith ? St Paul teaches us 
this, faith cometh by hearing. Then, if we will come to 
faith, we must hear God’s word. 

10. We are justified by God’s free gift, and not of our¬ 
selves ; but the righteousness of Christ is accounted to be 
our righteousness, and through the same we obtain ever¬ 
lasting life. 

11. I never saw so little discipline as is now-a-days. 
Men will all be masters; they will be-, masters, and not 
disciples. 

12. Mix your pleasures with the remembrance of Christ’s 
bitter passion. 






















WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


68 


L UTHER. 

BORN 1483—DIED 1546. 

1. That a man may lift up his head toward heaven, he 
must find nothing on earth whereon to lean it. 

2. That thou despairest of thyself, and doubtest of thy 
power, does not displease me : but this displeaseth me, 
that thou also despairest of the power of God. 

3. Our unthankfulness for, and light esteem of, God’s 
Word, will do more than anything to help the Pope into 
the saddle again. 

4. He that hath Christ for his God and King, let him 
be assured that he hath the devil for his enemy, who will 
work him much sorrow, and will plague him all the days 
of his life. 

5. No stone, nor steel, nor diamond is so hard as the 
impenitent heart of man. 

6. They are small devils that tempt with lasciviousness 
and avarice; higher spirits tempt with unbelief, and despair, 
and heresy. 

7. Thus Christ, with most sweet names, is called my 
law, my sin, my death, whereas in very deed he is nothing 
else but mere liberty, righteousness, life, and everlasting 
salvation. 

8. Surely I could never have believed, but that I have 
good experience at this day, that the power of the devil is 
so great that he is able to make falsehood so like to truth. 











---r 

LUTHER. 69 


9. We are mercifully called in grace, that we should be 
freemen under Christ, and not bondmen under Moses. 

10. All our doing is to suffer God to work in us. He 
giveth the word, which, when we have received, by faith 
given from above, we are new born, and made the sons of 
God. 

11. The difference between the offices of the law and 
the Gospel keepeth all Christian doctrines in their true 
and proper place. 

12. Let who will begin and prize this thing, he shall at 
length find how grievous and hard a thing it is for a man 
that hath been occupied all his lifetime in the works of his 
own holiness to escape out of it, and with all his heart by 
faith cleave to this one Mediator. I myself have now 
preached the gospel almost twenty years, and have been 
exercised in the same daily, by reading and writing, so 
that I may well seem to be rid of this wicked opinion: 
notwithstanding I yet now and then feel the same old filth 
cleave to my heart. Whereby it cometh to pass that I 
would willingly so have to do with God, that I might bring 
something with myself, because of which He should for 
my holiness’ sake give me His grace. And I can scarcely 
be brought to commit myself with all confidence to mere 
grace, which I should do: for we ought to fly only to the 
mercy-seat, forasmuch as God hath set it before us as a 
sanctuary, which must be the refuge of all them that shall 
be saved. 

13. Ye seek peace from the world; real peace is in 
Christ. Say not, Peace, peace, but, The cross, the cross. 

14. That man is not justified who does many works, 












WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


but he who, without yet having done works, has much 
faith in Christ. 

15. Christ Himself is my righteousness. I look at Him 
as a gift to me, in Himself; so that in Him I have all 
things. He says, I am the way, &c.; not, I give thee the 
way, &c.; as if He were working on me from without. 
All these things He must be in me , abiding, living, speak¬ 
ing in me; that I may be the righteousness of God in 
Him (2 Cor. v. 21); not in love, nor in gifts and graces 
which follow; but in Him. 

16. We must make a great difference between God’s 
word and the word of man. A man’s word is a little 
sound which flieth into the air, and soon vanisheth; but 
the word of God is greater than heaven and earth, yea, it 
is greater than death and hell, for it is the power of God, 
and remaineth everlastingly. Therefore we ought dili¬ 
gently to learn God’s word, and we must know certainly 
and believe that God Himself speaketh with us. 






CRANMER . 


CRAN MER. 

BORN 1489—BURNED 1556. 

1. The Holy Ghost hath so ordered and attempered the 
Scriptures, that in them as well publicans, fishers, and 
shepherds may find their edification as great doctors their 
erudition. 

2. Our justification doth come freely by the mere mercy 
of God ; and of so great and free mercy, that, whereas all 
the world was not able of themselves to pay any part 
towards their ransom, it pleasured our heavenly Father, of 
His infinite mercy, without any our desert, to prepare for 
us the most precious jewels of Christ’s body and blood, 
whereby our ransom might be fully paid, the law fulfilled, 
and His justice fully satisfied. So that Christ is now the 
righteousness of all them that only believe on Him. He 
for them paid their ransom by His death; He for them 
fulfilled the law in His life; so that now, in Him and by 
Him, every Christian man may be called a fulfiller of the 
law, forasmuch as that which their infirmity lacketh Christ’s 
justice hath supplied. 

3. The very sure and lively Christian faith is not only 
to believe all things of God which are contained in holy 
Scripture; but also is an earnest trust and confidence in 
God, that He doth regard us and hath care of us, as the 
father of the child whom he doth love, and that He will 
be merciful to us for His only Son’s sake. 





72 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


4. The true faith will shew itself, and cannot long be 

idle; for it is written, The just shall live by faith. He 
neither sleepeth nor is idle, when he should wake and be 
well occupied. J 

5. Let us do good works, and thereby declare our faith 
to be the lively Christian faith. 

6. I give warning in God’s name unto all who profess 
Christ that they flee far from Babylon, if they will save 
their souls, and to beware of that great harlot the pesti¬ 
ferous See of Rome, that she make you not drunk with 
her pleasant wine. Trust not her sweet promises, nor 
banquet with her; for, instead of wine, she will give you 
sour dregs, and for meat she will feed you with rank 
poison. But come to our Redeemer and Saviour Christ, 
who refresheth all that truly come to Him, be their anguish 
and heaviness never so great. Give credit to Him in 
whose mouth was never found guile nor untruth. By Him 
you shall be clearly delivered from all diseases; of Him 
you shall have full remission. He it is that feedeth con¬ 
tinually all that belong unto Him with His own flesh 
that hanged upon the cross, and giveth them drink 
of the blood flowing out of His side, and maketh to 
spring within them water that floweth unto everlasting 
life. 

7. Faith worketh peace and quietness in our hearts and 
consciences. For by faith we are certified that our sins 
are forgiven. 

8. Wherefore, good children, labour with all diligence 
and study, that, when Christ shall come again to judge 
the world, He may find you holy and obedient. 













CKANMER. 


73 


9. Christ is the true and perfect nourishment both of 
body and soul. 

10. As the devil is the food of the wicked, whom he 
nourisheth in all iniquity, and bringeth up into everlasting 
damnation, so is Christ the very food of all them that be 
the lively members of His body, and them He nourisheth, 
feedeth, bringeth up, and cherisheth unto everlasting life. 

11. Other medicines and plasters sometimes heal and 
sometimes heal not; but this medicine (Christ’s flesh) is 
of that effect and strength, that it perfectly healeth all 
wounds and sores that it is laid unto. 

12. Calling for God’s grace precedeth not faith; but, 
contrary, faith must needs precede our invocation of God, 
as St Paul saith, ‘ How shall they call on Him in whom 
they have not believed ?’ 

13. Perfect faith is nothing else but assured hope and 
confidence in Christ’s mercy. 













74 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


BALE. 

BORN 1495—DIED 1563. 

1. My daily desire is, in that everlasting school, to be¬ 
hold the eternal Son of God, both here and after this life ; 
and not only to see the fathers, prophets, and apostles 
therein, but also for love of that doctrine to enjoy their 
blessed fellowship hereafter. 

2. Doctrine without discipline maketh dissolute hearers; 
and, on the other hand, discipline without doctrine maketh 
either hypocrites or else desperate doers. 

3. I am the fresh fountain which Isaiah speaketh of; 
most highly necessary to them that will live. Very liberal 
shall he find Me that seeketh Me in faith. With Me is 
the well of life everlasting : with My pleasant rivers shall 
I content your good appetites. 

4. In Christ’s kingdom is no outward priesthood, nor 
sacrifice to be made for sin. For He hath, with one obla¬ 
tion for all, fully satisfied for the sins of His elect number 
for ever. 

5. This running flood, with its rivers on every side, re¬ 
joices the city of God, the habitation of the Highest. All 
full of quickness is it, springing into the life everlasting. 
Clear is this water as the pure crystal that is without spot. 
The nature of this water is none other but evermore to 
cleanse, evermore to revive, and evermore to make whole 
and perfect. 














BALE . 


6. If adversity, loss of goods, detriment of fame, sick¬ 
ness, or any other troublous cross happeneth, it is ever¬ 
more for the best to them that are faithful. Perfectly shall 
all these be taken away, in the regeneration, when to their 
glory both heaven and earth shall be blessed, and all that 
is cursed thrown into the lake of everlasting fire. 

7. Consider how lovingly the Father doth use us ; not 
only here do we bear the name of children, but also there 
shall we be His sons indeed. 

8. Of most tender mercy sent He that day-spring from 
above, to direct their feet in the way of His peace. And 
after this laborious pilgrimage, in the Sabbath of eternal 
quiet, shall He enlighten them thoroughly with His most 
glorious presence; and with Him shall they reign for ever, 
in full felicity and glory continuing. 

9. The proud reign of tyrants is here but for a time; 
the less is it to be feared. The meek reign of the right¬ 
eous continueth for ever; therefore the more is it to be 
sought for and desired. 

10. The Bride or Congregation of the Lord, thus 
taught, stirred, and urged forward of His Spirit, saith in 
her heart, evermore, with a fervent desire, Oh come, my 
most delectable spouse and Lord, Jesus Christ, my health, 
my joy, my sweetness. Accomplish the marriage ap¬ 
pointed from the world’s beginning. Permit that prepared 
spouse, with her appointed number, to enter into Thy 
eternal tabernacle of rest. 

11. Come, most merciful Saviour and Redeemer, fulfil 
the godly promises of this book to the eternal comfort of 
man. Make haste to the judgment-seat, for full deliver- 






76 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


ance of the whole chosen number, that Thy servants may 
be where Thou art, in perfect glory and joy. 

12. Oh come, most merciful Redeemer and gracious 
Lord Jesus Christ, to judge the universal world. Come, 
come, hie Thee hither apace, to separate the wheat from 
the chaff, and the lambs from the goats, to bring them to 
Thy eternal tabernacle. Woe is me that my banishment 
endureth so long. I dwell in the tabernacle of the sorrow¬ 
ful. My soul hath a thirsty desire for God, the fountain 
of life. Oh, when shall I come and behold His face ! 
Like are we to these faithful servants, who wait for the 
return of their Lord from the wedding, very ready to open 
at His knocking. 








MELANCTHON. 


77 


MELANCTHON. 

BORN 1497—DIED 1560. 

1. Humanity was created, and then afterwards redeemed, 
to be the temple of God, setting forth the glory of God. 

2. God is a Being spiritual, intelligent, eternal, true, 
good, pure, just, merciful, free altogether, of immense 
power and wisdom. He is the Father eternal, who from 
eternity begat the Son, His image. The Son is the co¬ 
eternal image of the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeds 
from the Father and the Son. 

3. It is good to notice, in the baptism of Christ, the 
clear setting forth of the three Persons of the Godhead. 
The Father utters that voice, ‘This is My beloved Son.’ 
The Son is seen standing in the river; and the Holy 
Spirit comes down in a visible appearance. 

4. Let us hold fast the distinction of the human and 
divine natures in Christ; and yet, at the same time, let 
this be known, that, because of the personal union, these 
propositions are true, viz., God suffered, was crucified, 
died. Think not that the human nature only was that 
which redeemed; it was the whole Son of God. 

5. The Spirit is called Spirit of Grace , because He 
testifies in us that we are received into favour, and because 
He moves our heart to believe this. 

6. The perfections of Godhead are not distinct things 
from the essence of Godhead. The power of the Father 





78 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


is the Father; and the righteousness of the Father is the 
Father; and the righteousness of the Soji is the Son. 

7. It is right to pray to the Holy Spirit, as thus : ‘Holy 
Spirit, who wasf poured upon the apostles, who wast pro¬ 
mised by the Redeemer, the Son of God, to kindle in us 
true knowledge and worship of God, raise Thou in our 
hearts true fear of God, true faith and acknowledgment 
of the mercy promised in the Son by the eternal Father. 
Be our Paraclete in all undertakings and perils, and stir 
up our souls to give honour always, by true obedience, 
to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to His Son, our 
Redeemer, and to Thee.’ 

8. The Law of the Ten Commandments reminds us— 
1 st, For what end man was made, and what was his 
dignity and purity originally. For man was meant to be 
what the Law describes—full of the knowledge of God; 
always setting forth his honour; always obeying; ever 
beholding His presence and superintending rule in all His 
works; observing just order in all His actions, without 
any vile lust, without any calamity, without death. It re¬ 
minds us, 2d, Of present misery; for we see our nature 
fallen from its first dignity; in conflict with the Law; full 
of darkness and contempt of God; all disorder; full of vile 
lusts of every kind. It reminds us, 3d, Of the restoration 
of humanity and of eternal life; for it intimates to how 
great excellency we are still called. For God repeats His 
voice of the Law ever since the fall, thereby shewing that 
He intends that the Law should, some time or other, be 
realised as Law. Therefore, there shall be a reparation of 
the human race; there shall be eternal life. 





AONIO PALEARIO. 


AONIO PALEARIO . 

BORN 1500—DIED 1570. 

1. It is not to be believed that the sin of Adam, which 
we have by inheritance from him, should be of more force 
than the righteousness of Christ, that which also we inherit 
by faith. It seemeth that man hath great cause to com¬ 
plain that (without any reason why) he is conceived and 
born in sin, and in the wickedness of his parents, by means 
of whom death reigneth over all men. But now is all our 
sorrow taken away; inasmuch as, by a like mean (without 
any occasion given on our behalf), righteousness and ever¬ 
lasting life are come by Jesus Christ, and by Him death is 
slain. 

2. As Jesus Christ is stronger than Adam was, so is His 
righteousness more mighty than the sin of Adam. And if 
the sin of Adam was sufficient enough to make all men 
sinners and children of wrath, without any misdeed of our 
own, much more shall Christ’s righteousness be of greater 
force to make us all righteous, and the children of grace, 
without any of our own good works. 

3. Then, my dear brethren, let us embrace the right¬ 
eousness of our Lord Jesus Christ, and let us make it ours 
by means of faith : let us assure ourselves that we be right¬ 
eous, not for our own works, but through the merits of 
Jesus Christ: and let us live merrily, and assured that the 
righteousness of Jesus Christ hath utterly done away all 






So WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


our unrighteousness, and made us good, righteous, and 
holy before God; who, beholding us engrafted into His 
Son by faith, esteemeth us not now any more as the chil¬ 
dren of Adam, but as His own children, and hath made 
us heirs of all His riches, with His own begotten Son. 

4. The godly childhood and youth of the Bridegroom 
hath justified the childish and youthful life of His dearly 
beloved bride. For the love and union that is betwixt 
the soul of a true Christian, and the Bridegroom Jesus 
Christ, maketh all the works of either of them to be com¬ 
mon to them both. By reason whereof, when a man saith, 
Jesus Christ hath fasted, Jesus Christ hath prayed, Jesus 
Christ was heard of the Father, raised the dead, drave 
devils out of men, healed the sick, died, rose again, and 
ascended into heaven; likewise, a man may say that a 
Christian man hath done all the self-same works; forso- 
much as the works of Christ are the works of the Chris¬ 
tian, because He hath done them for him. Verily, a man 
may say that a Christian hath been nailed to the cross, 
buried, raised again, is gone up into heaven, become the 
child of God, and made partaker of the Godhead. 

5. He that cometh unto God with assuredness of this 
faith, believing Him, without any mistrust or doubt of His 
promises, and warranting himself for a certainty that God 
will perform all that ever He hath promised him, giveth 
all the glory unto God, and liveth continually in rest and 
endless joy, evermore praising and thanking the Lord God 
for choosing him to the glory of the eternal life. 

6. If we will say the truth, a man can do no good works, 
except he first know himself to be become righteous by 





AONIO PALEARIO. 81 


faith; for, before he knoweth that, his doing of good 
works is rather to make himself righteous, than for the 
love and glory of God; and so he defileth all his works 
with self-love, for the love of himself and for his own 
profit. But he that knoweth himself to be become righteous 
by the merits and righteousness of Christ (which he maketh 
his own by faith), laboureth happily, and doth good works 
all only for the love and glory of Christ, and not for love 
of himself, nor to make himself righteous. And thereupon 
it cometh that the true Christian (that is, to wit, he that 
accounteth himself righteous by reason of Christ’s right¬ 
eousness) asketh not whether good works be commanded 
or not; but, being wholly moved and provoked with a 
certain violence of godly love, he offereth himself willingly 
to do all the works that are holy and Christian-like, and 
never ceaseth to do well. 

7. And, therefore, may every poor sinner say, with an 
assured confidence, Thou, Christ, art my sin and my curse; 
or, rather, I am Thy sin and Thy curse; and, contrari¬ 
wise, Thou art my righteousness, my blessing, and my life, 
my grace of God, and my heaven. And thus, if we by 
faith do behold this brazen serpent, Christ hanging upon 
the cross, we shall see the law, sin, death, the devil, and 
hell killed by His death; and so may, with the apostle 
Paul, sing that joying heart-ditty, ‘Thanks be to God who 
hath given us victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ. 


F 





82 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


HAMILTON (PATRICK). 

BORN 1503—MARTYRED 1528. 

1. The law sheweth us our sin; the Gospel sheweth us 
a remedy for it. The law sheweth us our condemnation ; 
the Gospel sheweth us our redemption. The law is the 
word of wrath; the Gospel is the word of grace. The law 
is the word of despair ; the Gospel is the word of comfort. 
The law is the word of unrest; the Gospel is the word of 
peace. 

2. The law saith, Pay thy debt; the Gospel saith, Christ 
hath paid it. The law saith, Thou art a sinner, despair, 
thou shalt be damned; the Gospel saith, Thy sins are 
forgiven thee, be of good comfort, thou shalt be saved. 
The law saith, Make amends for thy sins; the Gospel saith, 
Christ hath made it for thee. The law saith, Where is 
thy righteousness, goodness, and satisfaction ? the Gospel 
saith, Christ is thy righteousness, thy goodness, and satis¬ 
faction. The law saith, Thou art bound and obliged to 
me, to the devil, and to hell; the Gospel saith, Christ 
hath delivered thee from them all. 

3. He that lacketh faith trustethnot God; he that trusteth 
not God, trusteth not His word; he that trusteth not His 
word, holdeth Him false and a liar; he that holdeth him 
false and a liar, believeth not that He may do what He 
promiseth; and so he denieth that He is God. There¬ 
fore it followeth, he that lacketh faith cannot please God. 



















HAMILTON. 


83 


4. No man can do a greater honour to God than to 
count Him true. 

5. Faith is a certainty or assuredness; he that hath faith 
well knoweth that God will fulfil His word. 

6. Faith is the root of all good ; unbelief is the root of 
all evil. Faith maketh God and man good friends; un¬ 
belief maketh them foes. Faith bringeth God and man 
together; unbelief sundereth them. 

7. Faith sheweth us that God is a sweet Father; un¬ 
belief sheweth Him as a terrible Judge. Faith holdeth 
firm by the word of God; unbelief wavers here and there. 
Faith knoweth God; unbelief knoweth Him not. Faith 
only saveth us; unbelief only condemneth us. Faith ex- 
tolleth God and His deeds; unbelief herself and her deeds. 

8. Faith cometh of the word of God ; hope cometh of 
faith ; and charity springeth of them both. 

9. What is it to say that Christ died for thee? Verily 
it is that thou shouldest have died perpetually, and that 
Christ, to deliver thee from death, died for thee, and 
changed thy perpetual death into His own death. For 
thou madest the fault, and He suffered the pain, and that 
for the love He had to thee, before thou wast born. 

10. Thou must do good works; but beware that thou 
do them not to deserve any good through them. For if 
thou do so, thou receivest the good, not as a gift of God, 
but as a debt due to thee, and makest thyself fellow with 
God, because thou wilt take nothing of Him for nought. 
Therefore, do nothing to Him, but take of Him; for He 
is a gentle Lord, and with more glad will gives us all we 
need, than we can take it of Him. 











84 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


BULLINGER. 

BORN 1504—DIED 1574. 

1. As bread nourisheth and strengtheneth man, so the 
body of Christ, eaten by faith, feedeth and satisfieth the 
soul of man, and furnisheth the whole man to all duties 
of godliness. As wine is drink to the thirsty, so the blood 
of our Lord Jesus, drunken by faith, doth quench the 
thirst of the burning conscience, and filleth the hearts of 
the faithful with unspeakable joy. 

2. I confess and acknowledge, with open mouth and 
sincere heart, that spiritual, divine, and quickening pre¬ 
sence of our Lord Christ, both in the Supper and also out 
of the Supper, whereby He continueth to pour Himself 
into us, not by signs lacking life, but by His Holy Spirit, 
to make us partakers of all His good graces, to justify, 
quicken, nourish, sustain, and satisfy us ; which presence 
we do also feel in ourselves through faith, by the which we 
are sustained, nourished, and satisfied. For Christ is the 
Head of the Church, and we have fellowship with Him. 
How should a living body be without its head ? How 
should we be partakers of Christ, if we do not feel Him 
present, yea, living and working in us 'l 

3. The truest and most proper cause why sacraments 
be instituted under visible signs, seemeth partly to be God’s 
goodness, and partly man’s weakness. For very hardly 
do we reach unto the knowledge of heavenly things, if, 















BULUNGER. 85 


without visible form, they be laid before our eyes. But 
they are better and more easily understood, if they be re¬ 
presented unto us under the figure of earthly things; that 
is to say, under signs familiarly known unto us. As, there¬ 
fore, our bountiful and gracious Lord did covertly and 
darkly, nay, rather, evidently and notably, set before us 
the kingdom of God in parables, or dark speeches, even 
so by signs it pleased Him to lay before our eyes, after a 
sort, the very same thing, as it were in a painted table; 
to renew it afresh, and, by lively representation, to main¬ 
tain the remembrance of the same among us. 

4. The Gospel is a good and sweet word, and an assured 
testimony of God’s grace to usward. 

5. The most true Scripture doth teach us that God is, 
of His own inclination, naturally good, gentle, and, as 
Paul calleth Him , philanthropon (Titus iii. 4), a lover of us 
men ; who hath sent His own Son, of His own nature, into 
the world for our redemption; whereupon it doth follow 
that God doth freely, of Himself, and for His Son’s sake, 
love man, and not for any other cause. 

6. True faith is an undoubted persuasion in the mind of 
the believer, even so to have the thing as his belief is, and 
as he is said to have it in the express word of God. 

7. It is without doubt that the Son of God took true 
and human flesh, and in the same is consubstantial, or of 
the self-same substance, with us, in all points, sin excepted. 
One and the same Christ is, according to the disposition of 
His divine nature, immortal; according to the disposition 
of His human nature, mortal; and the self-same immortal 
God and mortal man is the only Saviour of the world. 





86 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


KNOX (JOHN). 

BORN 1505—DIED 1572. 

1. Sin was so odious and detestable in the presence 
of our heavenly Father, that by no other sacrifice could 
the same be purged, except by the blood and death of the 
only innocent Son of God. 

2. When I deeply do consider the cause of Christ’s 
death to have been sin , and sin yet to dwell in all flesh, 
with Paul I am compelled to sob and groan as a man 
under a heavy burden. 

3. Albeit I never lack the presence and plain image 
of my own wretched infirmity ; yet seeing sin so manifestly 
abound in all estates, I am compelled to thunder out the 
threatenings of God against obstinate rebellers. 

4. I sob and lament for that I cannot be quit and rid 
of sin. I desire to live a more perfect life. 

5. Cause have you none of desperation, albeit the devil 
rage never so cruelly, and albeit the flesh be never so frail, 
daily and hourly lusting against God’s holy command¬ 
ments. This is not the time of justice before our own 
eyes. We look for that which is promised, the kingdom 
everlasting, prepared for us from the beginnning. 

6. All England is this day called; but ye know how 
mean is the number that obey the voice of the caller. 

7. The member shall be correspondent and like to the 
Head, who in anguish of extreme dolour cried, ‘My God, 







KNOX. 


87 


my God, why hast Thou forsaken meP Oh words most 
dolorous, and voice most lamentable to be heard proceed¬ 
ing from the mouth of the Son of God ! He was no 
debtor to sin nor death; and yet this did he suffer, not 
only to make satisfaction to the justice of God, which we 
were never able to do, but also to put us in comfort that 
His suffering was not in vain, but even for our example. 

8. He is our Saviour and only Mediator, the first-be¬ 
gotten of the dead, the sole and sovereign Prince, exalted 
above all powers and potentates whatsoever, that by Him 
we, now sore afflicted in absence of our Bridegroom, may 
receive immortality and glory when He shall return to 
restore the liberty to the sons of God. 

9. Oh miserable, unthankful, and most mischievous 
world ! what shall be thy condemnation when He that has 
so often gently provoked you to obey His truth, shall 
come in His glory to punish thy contempt! 

10. Our heavenly Father, of His infinite wisdom, to 
hold us in continual remembrance that in this wretched 
world there is no rest, suffereth us to be tried with this 
cross, that with an unfeigned heart we may desire not 
only an end of our own troubles (for that shall come to us 
by death), but also of all the troubles of the Church of 
God ; which shall not be before the again-coming of the 
Lord Jesus. 








88 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


CA L VIN. 

BORN 1509—DIED 1564. 

W 

1. It deeply concerned us that He who was to be our 
Mediator—should be very God and very man. Our iniqui¬ 
ties, like a cloud intervening between Him and us, none but 
a person reaching to Him could be the medium of restoring 
peace. The case was desperate, if the Godhead itself did 
not descend to us, it being impossible for us to ascend. 
Thus the Son of God behoved to become our Emmanuel. 

2. He who was to be our Redeemer must be truly God 
and man. It was His to swallow up death ; who but Life 
could do so ? It was His to conquer sin ; who could do 
so save Righteousness ? It was His to put to flight the 
powers of the air and the world; who could do so but 
the mighty Power superior to both ] But who possesses 
life, and righteousness, and the dominion of heaven, but 
God alone ! 

3. So deeply rooted in our hearts is unbelief, so prone 
are we to it, that, while all confess with the lips that God 
is faithful, no man ever believes it without an arduous 
struggle. 

4. The goodness of God is not properly comprehended, 
when security does not follow as its fruit. 

5. Faith has no less need of the Word than the fruit of 
a tree has of a living root; because, as David testifies, 
none can hope in God but those who know His name. 












CAL VIN 


89 


6. Every promise which God makes is evidence of His 
good-will. 

7. Faith is the special gift of God, both in purifying the 
mind, so as to give it a relish for divine truth, and after¬ 
wards in establishing it therein. 

8. We are naturally blind; and the word cannot pene¬ 
trate our mind unless the Spirit, that eternal Teacher, by 
His enlightening power, make an entrance for it. 

9. What the schoolmen say as to the priority of love 
to faith and hope, is a mere dream; since it is faith alone 
that first engenders love. 

10. Faith includes not merely the knowledge that God 
is, but also, nay chiefly, a perception of his will towards 
us. Faith is a firm and sure knowledge of the divine 
favour towards us, founded on the truth of a free promise 
in Christ, and revealed to our minds and sealed on our 
hearts by the Holy Spirit. 

11. Faith is a knowledge of the divine favour towards 
us, and a full persuasion of its truth. 

12. Our faith is not true unless it enables us to appear 
calmly in the presence of God. 

13. Faith ought to seek God, not to shun Him. 

14. Therefore, let us come to a sounder mind, and 
however repugnant the blind and stupid longing of the 
flesh may be, let us desire the coming of the Lord, not in 
wish only, but with earnest sighs, as the most propitious of 
all events. He comes as a Redeemer, to deliver us from 
an abyss of evil and misery, and to lead us to the blessed 
inheritance of His life and glory. 

____ 







90 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


BRADFORD. 

BORN (ABOUT) 1510—MARTYRED 1555. 

1. What is glory in this world but shame? Why art thou 
afraid to carry Christ’s cross ? Wilt thou come into His 
kingdom, and not drink of his cup ? 

2. Dost thou not know Rome to be Babylon ? Dost 
thou not know that, as the old Babylon had the children 
of Judah in captivity, so hath this Rome the true Judah, 
the confessors of Christ. 

3. Hath not the harlot of Babylon more costly array 
and rich apparel than the homely housewife of Christ ? 
Where is the beauty of the King’s daughter, the church of 
Christ—without or within ? Doth not David say within ? 
Can the Pope and his prelates mean honestly, who make 
so much of the wife, and so little of the husband ? The 
church they magnify, but Christ they contemn. 

4. Covet not earthly riches; fear not the power of man; 
love not this world ; but long for the coming of the Lord 
Jesus, when your bodies shall be made like unto His 
glorious body. 

5. Dearly beloved, remember that you are not of this 
world ; that Satan is not your captain ; that your joy and 
Paradise are not here; that your companions are not the 
multitude of worldlings. But ye are of another world. 
Christ is your Captain ; your joy is in heaven ; your com¬ 
panions are the fathers, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, 
















BRADFORD. 91 


martyrs, virgins, confessors, and dear saints of God, who 
follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. 

6. Faith must go before, and then feeling will follow. 

7. Though you feel not as you would, yet doubt not, 
but hope beyond all hope, as Abraham did; for always, 
faith goeth before feeling. 

8. Being assured of God’s favour towards you, give 
yourself wholly to help and care for others; then shall you 
contemn this life, and desire to be at home with your good 
and sweet Father. 

9. If you should believe or doubt for your goodness or 
illness’ sake, which you feel or feel not, then should you 
make Christ Jesus, for whose sake only God is your 
Father, either nothing, or else but half Christ. 






92 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


FOX. 

BORN 1517—DIED 1587. 

1. As Christ Jesus, in this earth, sought nothing but the 
glory only of His Father, so His Father now seeketh 
nothing else in heaven but the glory of His Son. 

2. The devil rages ; the Turk daily winneth ground; 
the Papist persecuteth; and yet all this will not awake us 
to seek Christ, in whom only lieth our victory. Our 
covetous, voluptuous, vicious, and ambitious life, what 
does it declare, but either infidelity or neglecting of 
Christ’s kingdom ! We talk of heaven, we walk not to 
heaven. 

3. The glory of Christ is not our study, or certes, is the 
least part of our study. We hear of the glory of Christ, 
but we feel it not ; we talk of Christ, but have no experi¬ 
ence of Him, no acquaintance with Him; we honour Him 
with our lips, but our heart doth not hunger after Him. 

4. Let princes learn to know this Christ; let subjects 
attend upon Him ; let ancient fathers take hold of Him ; 
let young men embrace Him; let the rich enlarge their 
treasury with this precious jewel; and let the poor seek, 
as their relief, to be refreshed by Him. 

5. As no man hath ever pleased the Father besides 
Christ, so in Him the Father is so well pleased, that for 
Flis sake, He dearly loveth all those who are of Christ. 

6. Art Thou He that excellest all the children of men 






FOX. 


93 


in beauty % in whose lips grace was shed most plentifully % 
Where is that beauty of Thine % I find it not; I see it 
not. Fleshly eyes conceive not so great a mystery. Open 
Thou the eyes of my mind. Bring Thy divine light nearer 
to me, and give me power to look more upon Thee. 

7. O noontide of fervent love and sunshine, never draw¬ 
ing towards eventide, shew us where Thou feedest in the 
midst of the day, and where Thou shroudest Thy sheep 
from the cold ! 

8. Christ was made sin for us no other way, but by 
imputation only; therefore we are made righteous before 
God no other way, but by imputation only. 

9. Though the righteousness of another, which is not 
inherent in us, cannot render us essentially just, nothing 
hinders but the righteousness of another may help our 
righteousness, according to judicial imputation. 

10. The object of that faith which justifies us, is no 
other thing but the person of the Son of God. 

11. Love proceeds from faith, and not faith from love. 
Because we believe, therefore we love; but we do not 
believe because we love. Whence the Lord, regarding 
more her faith than her love, said to her, ‘ Thy faith’—not 
thy love—‘hath saved thee.’ 












94 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


COOPER (BISHOP OF WINCHESTER). 

BORN 1517—DIED 1594. 

1. St Paul spake with a loud voice and a strong spirit, 
‘Woe be to me if I preach not the gospel!’ The same 
was the voice of all the old fathers and godly men in the 
beginning. They were occupied in nothing but either in 
teaching and confirming truth, or in reproving and defacing 
falsehood and heresy; but, after six hundred years, the 
prelates of the church well nigh clean lost their voices. 

2. In Christ’s Supper ye see the Master together with 
the disciples, the table and the meat common to all: not 
so much as Judas the traitor excluded; one loaf and one 
cup distributed among the whole company. Therefore 
when ye come together, ye must imitate the concord and 
equality that he then used. 

3. The Lord’s Supper is a remembrance of one perfect 
sacrifice, whereby we were once sufficiently purged from 
sin, and continually are revived by the same. The Lord’s 
Supper is to be distributed in the common assembly of 
His people, to teach us the communion whereby we all 
be knit together in Christ Jesus. 

4. What, I pray you, can be more contrary than, when 
Christ bade them drink, to take away the cup; and when 
Christ bade them distribute among them, and St Paul 
willed one to tarry for another, until they came together, yet 
contrary to this (as you do), to minister and receive alone ? 








COOPER. 95 


5. The laws and covenants whereby we be all thus knit 
and joined together, are the word of God and the sacra¬ 
ments, used according to Christ’s institution. Therefore 
all churches of the world have the same word of God, and 
the same sacraments ; and by them, through faith, are 
graffed into one and the same body of Christ, though they 
be thousands of miles asunder. By the word of God our 
faith is instructed; by baptism we be received first into 
the society of Christian communion, and made members 
of the mystical body. By the Lord’s Supper we have 
from time to time heavenly food ministered unto us, and, 
as it were, lively spirit from the head of this body Jesus 
Christ. He, therefore, that is baptized in India, hath the 
same baptism that we have; and, being graffed into the 
same body, hath communion with us in baptism. like¬ 
wise they that receive the Lord’s Supper be fed with the 
same food of the body and blood of Christ that we be, 
and so have communion with us in that sacrament, though 
in place they be far off. This is the communion between 
Christian men. 

6. As the bread of many grains is brought into one 
loaf, and the juice of many grapes is made wine in one 
cup, so the multitude of a Christian congregation, receiv¬ 
ing together the Lord’s Supper, are made members of one 
body, knit together in like faith and charity, and having 
like hope of salvation. 

7. What ground shall our faith have if we leave the 
word of God ? 





96 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


SANDYS (ARCHBISHOP). 

BORN 1519—DIED 1588. 

1. Be thy sins never so great, fear not to come; for He 
that calleth thee hath stretched out His arms of mercy at 
length; they are wide open to receive thee; mercy is ready 
to all that will receive it; and to them that need it most, 
most ready. A comfortable lesson to all sinners. 

2. A good conscience maketh a strong faith ; many, by 
losing their hold of the one, have made shipwreck of the 
other. 

3. Judas received the Lord’s bread; but not that bread 
which is the Lord to the faithful receiver. The spiritual 
part, that which feedeth the soul, only the faithful do 
receive. For he cannot be partaker of the body of Christ, 
who is no member of Christ’s body. 

4. It goeth full hardly with the Church of God, \tfhen 
Balaam is the bishop, Judas the patron, and Magus the 
minister. 

5. All our travail in seeking, without faith, is but a 
fruitless wearying of our deceived souls; for he that cometh 
to God must believe. And the way to believe is hearing; 
for by hearing cometh faith ; the word is that star which 
guideth and directeth us to Christ. 

6. We need not ask where Christ is, or what he 
wanteth, that we may give unto Him. He is near at hand; 
straying and starving in the streets, naked, cold, harbour- 










.. SAND YS. 


97 


less, sick, and diseased, ruthfully moaning and crying for 
relief. Let the pitiful cry of our Christ move our hearts 
to mercy. 

7. As man’s life is short, so is the coming of Christ at 
hand. Wait; for it will surely come, and will not stay. 
The time is short; this we know; though it be not in us 
to know the definite point of time, which to the angels of 
heaven is unrevealed. But Christ hath set down certain 
tokens of the end, which all are fulfilled; and, among 
others, He saith iniquity shall abound, charity shall wax 
cold, the Gospel shall be preached in all the world. Never 
more iniquity; never less charity; the Gospel never so 
liberally taught. Behold the end ! 

8. Let us expect the coming of the Lord. He cometh 
in post; the forewarnings are fulfilled; iniquity aboundeth; 
Christian charity is frozen; the Gospel is preached ; then 
the end ! 

9. We preach Christ, and none else but Him; we know 
nothing, we teach nothing, we believe nothing, but Christ 
and Him crucified. 

10. This wicked man (Popery) the Lord shall destroy 
with the breath of His mouth; and then shall be the end. 
The blast of God’s trump hath made him already stagger; 
he hath caught such a cramp that he beginneth now to 
halt; his long and far-reaching arm is marvellously 
shortened; his coffers are waxen leaner; his falsehood is 
espied; many princes refuse to taste any more of his 
poisoned cup; he is fallen from being the head, and come 
almost to be the tail. 


11. We are healed with His stripes; and where there is 



G 








WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


no sore there needs no salve. Not that we have no sin; 
but, acknowledging that we have it, it is as if we had it 
not, because He is faithful to forgive it, and just to cleanse 


it. 


12. He that spareth a wolf spareth the blood of the 
flock, saith Chrysostom. God appointeth the magistrate 
to be ‘ a revenger unto wrath upon him that committeth 
evil.’ They who glory to have the sword rusty in the 
sheath, when they would draw it out, peradventure shall 
not so well be able. 

13. The great devil, in these our later days, is let loose. 
Antichrist rageth, and seeketh our confusion. The wicked, 
glistering world marvellously deceiveth and bewitcheth. 
The flesh reigneth, and beareth sway. The spirit is faint; 
sin overfloweth ; Christ is coming in the clouds to call us 
to judgment. Therefore, be ye sober, watch and pray! 













GUALTER. 


G UAL TER. 

BORN (ZURICH) 1519—DIED 1586. 

1. Let us have Jesus Christ always set before us, as the 
end of all the sacred Scriptures, that in him alone we may 
seek all that is necessary for salvation. 

2. Unless we refer everything to Christ, we shall never 
be able to understand the true sense of the Bible, and we 
shall make idols of ourselves, ascribing to our own strength 
and merit that which is to be sought in Jesus Christ alone. 

3. The kingdom of God is only preached when Jesus 
Christ is preached. 

4. Jesus will have ministers that engage in His work 
faithfully and with all their heart, and that hearken in no 
wise to the spirit of the age and the wisdom of the world. 

5. Let the ministers of the Gospel remember that they 
are called the friends of the Bridegroom, a dignity infinitely 
superior to all the honours of this world. No one is fit 
for this employment, unless his heart burns with love to 
Jesus Christ. Hence arises their faithfulness to lead the 
Bride to Jesus Christ alone, and to have no other joy than 
to see her united to Jesus Christ, and living in tender 
communion with Him. 

6. ‘Jesus was wearied with His journey’ (John iv. 6). 
Jesus wearied, He that created the whole of this vast 
universe by His almighty power ! How strange is this ! 
but it was not without reason that Jesus was wearied. It 






ioo WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


was for thee, 0 man, that He was wearied. He who is 
the true God, took on Himself our flesh and blood, with 
all our infirmities. He was made like unto us in all things, 
sin only excepted, that He might be a faithful and com¬ 
passionate High Priest. 

7. By faith we embrace Jesus Christ, and are so united 
with Him, that we are in Him and He in us. As He was 
pleased to take upon Himself all our miseries, and make 
them His own, so by faith He is made ours; His obedience 
is ours, His innocence, His righteousness, His satisfaction, 
His holiness; nay, all that He hath is ours. 

8. Jesus Christ says of him that believeth, that he hath, 
not that he shall have, eternal life. For faith, laying hold 
on Jesus Christ as present, receives all that is offered us 
in Him, so that those who believe have eternal life already, 
though, as to the body, they are still mortal. 

9. Faith is not a vain opinion, but a certain and full 
assurance, which God Himself brings forth in our hearts, 
and preserves by His Spirit. Therefore it produces such 
wonderful effects, as surpasses the human understanding. 

10. The Church of Jesus Christ is a stranger here below, 
and has on earth no fixed abode; her dwelling and her 
home are in heaven. When Christ is, to all appearance, 
banished from every part of this world, it is then that the 
knowledge of Him is spread far and wide; and the Church 
never prospers better than when her enemies suppose 
that there is hardly a spot left on which she can set her 
foot. It is in this state of poverty and contempt that the 
divine power of Jesus Christ manifests itself in the church. 





CHEMNITZ . 


CHEMNITZ. 

BORN 1522—DIED 1586. 

1. He might easily have created a new human nature 
to take upon Himself; a nature which should have been 
more rich and glorious than it had been in Adam before 
the fall. But He chose rather to take our nature in the 
womb of the blessed Virgin; this nature which, on account 
of the frailty, weakness, and misery with which it is laden 
by reason of sin, is called flesh. 

2. The fulness of grace in which God desires to em¬ 
brace man, He has deposited in the eternal Word, in 
order that there it might be sought and there received. 

3. As the motion of the air is now violent, now gentle, 
now not perceived at all, so the regenerated must know 
that the presence and operating power of the Spirit is not 
measured by their perception of spiritual movements. 

4. It is a beautiful name here given to the ministers of 
the word, friends of the Bridegroom. For, as a bridegroom 
employs confidential friends to sue for him his bride, so 
also does Christ employ His servants to propose to poor 
sinners spiritual betrothment with Him, and by discover¬ 
ing their sins, and setting before them His atonement, 
shall win them unto Him, in order that thus the chosen 
bride may be conducted to the Bridegroom. And even 
after the bride is betrothed to the Bridegroom, it is the 
Bridegroom’s will that His friend should be present at the 







102 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


marriage, that she who is espoused to one husband may be 
presented as a chaste virgin, and may maintain her con¬ 
jugal fidelity. At all times does the Son of God thus em¬ 
ploy His servants’ labours in the Church, whether it be to 
conduct the bride to the Bridegroom, or to see that the 
betrothed keep her fidelity, or, if she break it, to bring her 
back again to the marriage-bond. Those who do this are 
the friends of the Bridegroom. Thus ministers are re¬ 
minded of their true calling, and that it should be their 
highest joy to win many souls to Christ, and to lead them 
to Him. For he who is indeed the friend of the Bride¬ 
groom can experience no greater joy than that of hearing 
the Bridegroom’s voice, as He receives His bride and 
unites her for ever with Himself, and gives her fellowship 
with Himself in all that he is and has. 

5. Christ, in suffering persecution, emptied Himself of 
His power; He stooped down to the deepest lowliness, in 
order that we may be able, with His weakness, to comfort 
ourselves. 

6. Attend to the order in which the words are placed. 
Christ places the exhortation in the middle, Sin no more 
(John v. 14). But He supports the exhortation both ways 
by powerful reasons. In front, by the consideration of the 
received benefit, Behold , thou aid made whole. Behind, 
by the threat of a heavier punishment in case of sin, lest a 
worse thing come upon thee . 

7. It is through the word that Christ deals with us; it 
is through the word that He offers Himself and His bless¬ 
ings to us, and imparts Himself to our souls. 





BUCHOLTZER. 


BUCHOL TZER. 

BORN 1529—DIED 1584. 

1. In Paul I observe five gloryings : (i.) He glories in 
weakness ; (2.) in the cross of Christ; (3.) in a good con¬ 
science ; (4.) in afflictions; (5.) in the hope of eternal 
life. 

2. A Christian is one who speaks and does what the 
devil hates; one who glorifies God, the author of his life 
and salvation. 

3. Many kiss Christ; few love Him; it is one thing to 
love and another to kiss. 

4. To rejoice in God is the height of all blessedness on 
earth. 

5. If you would live in the world, learn to despise and 
to be despised. 

6. This I have for refuge and defence in my troubles; 
converse with God, with my true friends, and with my 
silent teachers (books). 

7. In the Churches men’s words breed more controver¬ 
sies than the words of God; and we contend more about 
Apollos and Peter and Paul than about Christ. Hold fast 
what is divine; give up what is human. 

8. Poets have never disturbed states; orators often. 

9. A good man will do what he can, though he cannot 
do all that he would desire. 

10. I have discovered a middle condition between 








WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


being and not being, namely, becoming. I am becoming 
what I am not; and when I shall cease to be, then I 
shall be. 

11. When God calls, always would I answer with 
Abraham, Here I am; but most joyfully would I thus 
answer, if He would at length call me out of these narrow 
abodes into the boundlessness of a blessed immortality; 
nothing do I long for so much as the hour of my peaceful 
death. I wonder that it has been so long deferred, and 
that this feeble body, like a frail pitcher, has not been 
sooner broken. 

12. After this battle we shall triumph as conquerors, 
with our Standard-bearer, in life eternal. I have long be¬ 
lieved in Christ; and I long for the end of faith, that I 
may no more believe in Him, but see Him in whom I have 
believed; that I may taste how sweet the Lord is, that I 
may touch with my hands my Lord and my God. There 
I shall be called Abraham, because Abraham rejoiced to 
see the day of Christ. I have experienced that in this life 
sin is all and in all; I shall experience another life, where 
the Lord is all and in all. 







TREL CA TJ US ( OF LE YDEN). 


TREL CA TIUS (OF LE YDEN). 

BORN 1542—DIED 1602. 

1. Of all things here there is nothing immortal; but 
everything marcheth by little and little to corruption and 
decay. 

2. The points of God’s eternal decree are man’s bounds, 
the which he hath no sooner touched but he dies. 

3. What care, waywardness, passions, troubles, hinder 
the action of a true life? 

4. What is the present but the twinkling of an eye, a 
moment which flies away as suddenly as can be spoken ? 
Whatsoever is past is dead to us, as if it had never been; 
whatsoever is to come is as if it should not be. The hours 
pass, so do the days and years ; what is past returns no 
more; neither can we divine what is to come; who can 
assure us that the moment after this shall remain to be 
added to the former? This which we call life, what is it 
else but a very point, a moment ? 

5. Thou canst not comprehend this depth of time with¬ 
out time, which we call eternity ; in like sort thou canst 
not conceive rightly the shortness of thy life. 

6. Let the assurance of God’s decree make us resolve 
and attend His will and ordinance, in all events, in every 
place, at all times, and at every moment; laying our care 
on Him who hath numbered all our days. 





io6 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


7. The counsel of God is a power too wise and a wis¬ 
dom too powerful to resist either by force or policy. 

8. Let this brevity put us in mind, on the one side, of 
the justice of God in the punishment of our sins ; on the 
other, of His mercy, for that it hath pleased Him to con¬ 
vert this punishment into a blessing and an expectation 
(as sure as it is short) of that eternal and immortal life; 
for seeing that sin hath banished us from that celestial 
paradise, and that this world is, as it were, the place of 
our exile, what sweeter comfort can we receive than a 
short and speedy end of our banishment, and a sudden 
recall into our heavenly country % 

9. As the perfection of nature in its integrity was to live 
and not to die, so the imperfection of corrupted nature is 
to die, and that soon. 

10. Shall we not esteem the days of this life very short, 
if we compare them with the eternal Sabbath, which shall 
not only give an end to all our labours, but also change 
our six days into eternity 1 ? 

11. Shall we, who are Christians, be so delicate, not 
only to take pleasure in this garment (the flesh), but also 
like children to cry and weep when it is spoiled, if a thorn 
take hold of it, or any one in passing hath rent it ? The 
flesh is not the wedding garment, but the righteousness of 
our Lord Jesus Christ, which we put on by believing in 
Him ; for that is the garment of our eldest brother, where¬ 
with we must be clothed if we will be partakers of the 
blessings of our heavenly Father, as Jacob, putting on the 
garment of his elder brother Esau, received the blessing 
of his father Isaac. 





TREECA TIUS (OF LE YDEN). 107 


12. The exchange is dangerous, to lose the infinite for 
that which is momentary, the eternal for the temporal, 
heaven for earth, this glory so surpassing excellent for a 
shadow of inconstant pleasure. 

13. What is then this duty of watching, seeing this life 
is but a watch of the night 1 To watch for with a burning 
affection, a constant patience, and a most certain assur¬ 
ance, the coming of the morning and most glorious appear¬ 
ing of our sun. Shall not we, who are watchmen in this 
world, sigh under the toils of this night, after the coming 
of that final day of 'our deliverance ? 

14. Let that voice which cries at midnight, Behold, the 
Bridegroom cometh, sound continually in our ears and 
awaken us. 

15. Let our conversation be as of burgesses of heaven, 
and that our hearts be where our treasure is, that is, Jesus 
Christ. 

16. We have been chosen from all eternity, and shall 
be glorified in all eternity. 

17. We must not measure the life according to the time, 
but according to the actions. 

18. Let us aspire with a holy desire and firm hope to 
the enjoying of this eternal life; sighing under the vanity 
and shortness of this frail and earthly life. Jesus Christ 
saith, For certain I come soon : let us, with the church, 
answer with holy affection, Come, Lord Jesus, come 
quickly. 





io8 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


DENT (ARTHUR). 

BORN (P)-DIED 1607. 

1. Most men now-a-days have nothing to spare for 
Christ, nothing for His church, nothing for the poor 
children of God and needy members of Christ. Christ is 
little beholden to them. 

2. Men are sick of the golden dropsy; the more they 
have, the more they desire. The love of money increaseth 
as money itself increaseth. 

3. Why should we hang down our heads ? Why do we 
not pluck up good hearts and be of good cheer % God is 
our father, our best friend, our daily benefactor; He 
keepeth us at his own cost and charges; He grudgeth us 
nothing; He thinketh nothing too much for us; He loveth 
us most dearly; He is most chary and tender over us; 
He cannot endure the wind should blow upon us; He will 
have us want nothing that is good for us; if we will eat 
gold, we shall have it. Let us, therefore, rejoice and be 
merry; for heaven is ours, earth is ours, God is ours, Christ 
is ours, all is ours. The world clap their hands and crow 
long before it be day, saying, All is theirs; but the children 
of God may say, and say truly, All is ours. 

4. Mark and consider what a man may do, yea, what 
one man may do ; what an Abraham may do; what a 
Moses may do; what an Elijah may do; what a Daniel, 
what a Samuel, what a Job, what a Noah may do ! Some 





DENT. 109 


one man, by reason of his high favour with the Eternal, is 
able sometimes to do more for a land by his prayers and 
tears, than many prudent men by their counsel, or valiant 
men by their swords. Yea, it doth evidently appear, in 
the sacred volume of the Holy Ghost, that some one poor 
preacher, being full of the spirit and power of Elijah, doth 
more in his study either for offence or defence, either for 
the turning away of wrath or the procuring of mercy, than 
a camp-royal even four thousand strong. 

5. Now-a-days we have many hedge-breakers, few hedge- 
makers; many openers of gaps, few stoppers; many makers 
of breaches to let in the flood of God’s wrath upon us, but 
very few to make up the breach and let down the sluices, 
that the gushing stream of God’s vengeance may be stayed. 

6. We ought to be as sure of our salvation as of any 
other thing that God hath promised, or which we are bound 
to believe. 

7. Is not the doctrine of the assurance of salvation a 
most comfortable doctrine ? Yes, doubtless, for except a 
man be persuaded of the favour of God, and the forgive¬ 
ness of sins, and consequently of his salvation, what comfort 
can he have in anything ? Besides this, the persuasion of 
God’s love toward us is the root of our love and cheerful 
obedience towards Him. 

8. The doctrine of the Papist, which would have men 
always doubt and fear, is a servile sort, is most hellish and 
uncomfortable. For as long as a man holds that, what 
encouragement can he have to serve God? What love to 
His majesty ? What hope in the promises? What com¬ 
fort in trouble ? What patience in adversity ? 






no WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


RALEIGH (SIR WALTER). 

BORN 1552—DIED 1618. 

1. The law sheweth the way of righteousness by works, 
the gospel by faith; the law woundeth, the gospel healeth; 
the law terrifieth, the gospel allureth; Moses accuseth, 
Christ defendeth ; Moses condemneth, Christ pardoneth ; 
the one restraineth the hand, the other the mind. Christ 
came to save the world, which the law had condemned; 
and as Moses was but a servant, and Christ a son, so the 
greatest benefit was reserved to be bought by the worthiest 
person; for the law made nothing perfect, but was an intro¬ 
duction of a better hope. 

2. He that hath pity on another man’s sorrow, shall be 
free from it himself; and he that delighteth in, and scorneth 
the misery of another, shall one time or another fall into 
it himself. 

3. Speaking much is a sign of vanity; for he that is 
lavish in words, is a niggard in deeds. Restrain thy anger; 
hearken much and speak little; for the tongue is the in¬ 
strument of the greatest good and the greatest evil that is 
done in the world. 

4. Jest not at those that are simple, but remember how 
much thou art bound to God, who hath made thee wiser. 

5. When once we come in sight of the port of death, to 
which all winds drive us, and when, by letting fall that 
fatal anchor, which can never be weighed again, the navi- 





RALEIGH. hi 


gation of this life takes end; then it is that our own cogi¬ 
tations return again, and pay us to the uttermost for all 
the pleasing passages of our lives past. 

6. God is He, from whom to depart is to die; to whom 
to repair is to revive; and in whom to dwell is life for ever. 
Be not, then, of the number of those that begin not to live 
till they be ready to die. 

7. O eloquent, just, and mighty Death! Whom none 
could advise, thou hast persuaded; what none hath dared, 
thou hast done; and whom all the world hath flattered, 
thou only hast cast out of the world and despised. Thou 
hast drawn together all the far-stretched greatness, all the 
pride, cruelty, and ambition of man, and covered it all 
over with those two narrow words, Hie jacei. 

8. There is not the smallest accident, which may seem 
unto man as falling out by chance, and of no consequence, 
but that the same is caused by God, to effect something 
else by; yea, and oftentimes to effect things of the greatest 
worldly importance, either presently, or in many years 
after, when the occasions are either not considered or for¬ 
gotten. 

9. The father provideth for his children; beasts, and 
birds, and all living things, for their young ones. If pro¬ 
vidence be found in second fathers, much more in the first 
and universal; and if there be a natural, loving care in 
men and beasts, much more in God, who hath formed 
this nature, and whose divine love was the beginning, and 
is the bond of the universal. 

1 o. Although religion, and the truth thereof, be in every 
man’s mouth, yea, in the discourse of every woman, what 





112 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


is it other than a universal dissimulation? We profess 
that we know God, but by works we deny Him; for beati¬ 
tude doth not consist in the knowledge of divine things, but 
in a divine life, for the devils k?iow them better than man. 

ii. The service of God is the path leading us to perfect 
happiness, and hath in it a true, though not complete, 
felicity; yielding such abundance of joy to the conscience, 
as doth easily countervail all afflictions whatsoever; though, 
indeed, those brambles that sometimes tear the skin of 
such as walk in this blessed way, do commonly lay hold 
upon them, at such time as they sit down to take their 
ease, and make them wish themselves at their journey’s 
end, in presence of their Lord, in whose presence is the 
fulness of joy. 



















HOOKER. 



HOOKER (RICHARD). 

BORN 1554—DIED 1600. 

1. Regard not who it is which speaketh, but weigh only 
what is spoken. 

2. There will come a time when three words, uttered 
with charity and meekness, shall receive a far more blessed 
reward than three thousand volumes written with disdain¬ 
ful sharpness of wit. 

3. The manner of men’s writings must not alienate our 
hearts from the truth, if it appear they have the truth. 

4. Think ye are men : deem it not impossible for you 
to err; sift impartially your own hearts, whether it be 
force of reason, or vehemency of affection, which hath 
bred, and still doth feed, these opinions in you. If truth 
do anywhere manifest itself, seek not to smother it with 
glozing delusion; acknowledge the greatness thereof, and 
think it your best victory when the same doth prevail over 
you. 

5. Dangerous it were for the feeble brain of man to 
wade far into the doings of the Most High; whom, although 
to know be life, and joy to make mention of His name, 
yet our soundest knowledge is to know that we know Him 
not as indeed He is, neither can know Him; and our 
safest eloquence concerning Him is our silence, when we 
confess, without confession, that His glory is inexplicable, 
His greatness above our capacity and reach. He is above, 


H 
















WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


114 

and we upon earth; therefore it behoveth our words to be 

* 

wary and few. 

6. All those venerable books of Scripture, those sacred 
volumes of Holy Writ, are with such absolute perfection 
framed, that in them there neither wanteth anything, the 
lack whereof might deprive us of life, nor anything in such 
wise aboundeth, that, as being superfluous, unfruitful, and 
altogether needless, we should think it no loss or danger 
at all, if we did want it. 

7. The general end both of Old and New Testaments 
is one; the difference between them consisting in this, 
that the Old did make wise by teaching salvation through 
Christ that should come, the New by teaching that Christ 
the Saviour is come ; and that Jesus, whom the Jews did 
crucify, and whom God did raise from the dead, is He. 

8. There be two kinds of Christian righteousness, the 
one without us, which we have by imputation ; the other 
in us, which consisteth of faith, hope, and charity, and 
other Christian virtues; and St James doth prove that 
Abraham had not only the one, because the thing believed 
was imputed unto him for righteousness, but also the other, 
because he offered up his son. God giveth us both the 
one justice and the other : the one, by accepting us for 
righteous in Christ; the other, by working Christian right¬ 
eousness in us. 

9. Longer than it holdeth the foundation whereof we 
have spoken, faith neither justified!, nor is ; but ceaseth to 
be faith, when it ceaseth to believe that Jesus Christ is the 
only Saviour of the world. 


j 




















ROLLOCK. 115 


ROLLOCK . 

BORN 1555—DIED 1598. 

1. In faith we stand not passively, but, being moved 
by the Holy Ghost, we work ourselves; as being stirred 
up to believe, we believe ; and, in a word, we work with 
God’s Spirit working in us. 

2. It is not so much our faith apprehending, as Christ 
Himself, and God’s mercy apprehended in Him, that is 
the cause wherefore God performeth the promise of His 
covenant unto us, to our justification and salvation. 

3. Do you mean that the prophetical and apostolical 
Scripture ought to be now in as great account with us of 
the lively voice of God Himself, and of extraordinary men 
as in times past 1 I mean so; and in this kind was 
revelation alone I willingly rest, as in that which came by 
inspiration from God, so long until I shall hear, at His 
glorious coming, that lively and most sweet voice of Christ 
my Saviour. 

4. Paul, in the eighth chapter to the Romans, uses 
these arguments against those wicked men that cannot 
sigh for heaven. He takes his argument from the ele¬ 
ments, the senseless and dumb creatures, which sob and 
groan for the revelation of the sons of God, and travail for 
that time as a woman in her birth. 

5. O miserable man ! the earth shall condemn thee. 
The floor thou sittest on is sighing, and would fain have 







WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


116 


that carcase of thine to heaven. The waters, the air, the 
heavens, are all sighing for that last deliverance, the glory 
whereof appertains to thee; and yet thou art laughing! 
Alas, what shall betide thee ! 

6. The soul cannot have so great joy as if the soul and 
body were together; but still, the soul, when separate, has 
greater joy in heaven than soul and body can have to¬ 
gether in this earth. 

7. Ever walking, a pilgrim must not sit down. Thou 
art a pilgrim upon thy journey toward another country; 
thou must not sit down; for otherwise thou shalt never 
come to thy journey’s end. 

8. Therefore love Jesus, and thou shalt get part with 
Him. Well is the soul that can love the Lord Jesus. 

9. Therefore it is that the godly in this life hope still 
for the coming of Jesus Christ; till they be set with Him 
in that inheritance purchased for us by His blood. 











PERKINS. 117 


PERKINS (WILLIAM). 

BORN 1558—DIED 1602. 

1. Search the Scripture and see what is sin, and what 
is not sin in every action ; this done, carry in thy heart a 
constant and resolute purpose not to sin in anything. 

2. Shew thyself to be a member of Christ and a servant 
of God, not only in the general calling of a Christian, but 
also in the particular calling wherein thou art placed. It 
is not enough for a magistrate to be a Christian man; he 
must also be a Christian magistrate. It is not enough 
for the master of a family to be a Christian man, or 
a Christian in the church; he must also be a Chris¬ 
tian in his family, and in the trade which he followeth 
daily. 

3. Labour to be displeased with thyself, and labour to 
feel that thou standest in need of every drop of the blood 
of Christ to heal and cleanse thee. 

4. If thou be demanded what, in thine estimation, is the 
vilest of the creatures upon earth, thine heart and conscience 
may answer with a loud voice, /, even /, by reason of mine 
own sins; and again, if thou be demanded what is the 
best thing in the world for thee, thy heart and conscience 
may answer again, with a strong and loud cry, One drop 
of the blood of Christ to wash away my sins ! 

5. The most comely garment that ever we can wear is 
the robe of Christ’s righteousness. 




















118 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


6. Hence we learn that the doctrine of the Church of 
Rome, and of all others which hold that men cannot be 
assured of their salvation by faith, is wicked and damnable; 
for hereby they cut off a part of Christ’s prophetical office, 
whereof the dignity doth consist in assuring a man parti¬ 
cularly of the truth of God’s promises unto himself. 

7. Justifying faith, in regard to its nature, is always one 
and the same; and the essential property thereof is to 
apprehend Christ, with His benefits, and to assure the very 
conscience thereof. 

8. Faith doth not justify in respect of itself, because it 
is an action or a virtue, or because it is strong, lively, and 
perfect, but in respect of the object thereof, Christ cruci¬ 
fied, whom faith apprehendeth, as He is set forth unto us 
in the word and sacraments. It is Christ that is the author 
and matter of our justification; and it is He that applieth 
the same unto us. As for faith, it is but an instrument to 
apprehend and receive that which Christ, for His part, 
offereth and giveth. Therefore, if faith err not in its 
proper object, but follow the promise of God, though it 
doth but weakly apprehend, it is true faith, and justifieth. 

9. A man must first believe in Christ, and then followeth 
repentance; and for new obedience, it is not a part of 
repentance, but a fruit thereof. 

to. These are the days of grace, but how long they will 
last God only knoweth. 

t 1. The daily persuasion of the speedy coming of Christ 
is of notable use; for, first, it will daunt the most desperate 
wretch that is, and make him tremble in himself, and 
restrain him from many sins. And if a man belong to 













PERKINS. 119 


God, and be yet a loose liver, this persuasion will rouse 
him out of his sins and make him turn to God; for who 
would not seek to save his soul, if he were persuaded that 
Christ is now coming to give him his final reward % Secondly, 
if a man have grace and do believe, this persuasion is a 
notable means to make him constant in every good duty, 
both of piety to God and of charity towards his brethren. 
Thirdly, this serveth to comfort any person that is in afflic¬ 
tion ; for, when he shall believe that which Christ hath 
said, I co?ne shortly, he cannot but think but that his de¬ 
liverance is at hand; for at His coming He bringeth per¬ 
fect redemption to all His elect. 





















120 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


HUME (ALEXANDER). 

BORN 1560—DIED 1609. 

1. Beware thou justifie not thyself in heart; for thou 
knawest that thou cannot abstaine fra sinne, nor cannot 
be saued without the meere mercie of God, shewn in the 
righteous merits of Jesus Christ. 

2. Travaile to be familiar and acquainted with thy God, 
be prayer and meditation, and walk with Him. 

3. Remember that nothing can come unto thee bot 
by God’s prouidence and permission: why, then, suld 
thou beare onie thing impatiently, seeing it is the Lord’s 
work 1 

4. The Lord is able to doo exceeding aboundantlie 
aboue all that we aske or think : why suld thou, then, be 
carefull or avaritious ? 

5. Studie earnestly to be temperate of thy mouth; for 
intemperance hurts the memorie and the judgment, smores 
the spirituall gift, makes the heart fat and sensuall, banishes 
heauenlie thoughts and meditations, and makes men un¬ 
able for any gude exercise. 

6. Be continuallie occupied ather in the Lord’s service, 
or in thine awin vocation, for the neglecting theirof wounds 
the conscience. 

7. Gif the Lord haue given thee any reasonable main¬ 
tenance of thy awin, haunt not rneikle the tables of other 
men. 






HUME. 


8. Refrain thy tunge from cursed speaking, fraward 
or filthy speaking, whereby the conscience is wonderfullie 
wounded, and the Spirit of Christ that dwells in us sair 
greeued. 

9. Crave of God a large and liberall heart; for a 
gnewous ( i.e ., gnawing) and pinching heart, in matters of 
small importance, is odious. 

10. Endeuour thyself to have thy mind stabill in thy 
prayer and meditation, and suffer not the samin to be in¬ 
terrupted with vaine thoughts or naughtie actions. 

11. Be not bitter, fraward, earnest, or offended for 
trifles. ... If thou be a pastour or a teacher, wherever 
thou cummis, let thy secret purpose be be to conqueis sum 
to Christ. 

12. Whereuer thou art iniured, or heirs words vttered to 
thy reproch or griefe, incontinent perswade thyselfe that it 
proceids fra God, and that He has stirred up the speaker 
or iniurer against thee. Therefore, consider if thou be 
iustly quarrelled, and then take it as a chastisement for 
thy sin. But if thou be falsely and uniustly quarrelled, then 
think it is done by God to try thy faith and patience, 
wherein thou suld reioyce and receaue comfort. 

13. Quhen thou art in perplexitie, and knawis not quhat 
to choose, intrenche thyselfe, and flee to the throne of 
grace to seeke resolution. 

14. Thinke not that thou, by thy industrie, convoy (i.e. 
prudence), or diligence, art able to accomplish onye gude 
thing; therefore, craue the Lord’s blessing to thy affairs, 
and wait patiently upon Him. 

15. Walk with grauitie, integritie, and with ane upright 









122 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


heart in all thy actions; and not craftely, feircely, or wil¬ 
fully, bot without fretting, murmuring, or upbraiding. 

16. Be silent and modest, and not light, revealing thy 
griefe, imperfection, and weakenes to euerie man, lest thou 
be despised. But poure out thy griefes before the Lord, 
and lament thine estait to Him. 

17. Be benevolent till all men, and patient towards all; 
suffering euerie thing patiently for Christ’s sake, and after 
His example. 

18. Although thy prayer appeare to be without effect, 
yet cease not from praying; for, if thy petition be lawfull, 
and that thou submit the granting thereof unfeinedly to 
the will of God, be sure that at length thou sail ather 
get thy desire, or else contentment, as though thou had 
gotten it. 









BACON. 


123 


BACON (LORD). 

BORN 1561—DIED 1626. 

1. Virtue is like precious odours, most fragrant when 
they are incensed or crushed ; for prosperity doth best dis¬ 
cover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue. 

2. The Scripture exhorteth us to possess our souls in 
patience. Whosoever is out of patience is out of posses¬ 
sion of his soul. 

3. Men must know, that in this theatre of man’s life, it 
is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers on. 

4. A man’s life is not to be trifled away; it is to be 
offered up and sacrificed to honourable services, public 
merits, good causes, and noble adventures. 

5. A cripple on the right way may beat a racer on the 
wrong one. Nay, the fleeter and better the racer is, who 
hath once missed his way, the further he leaveth it behind. 

6. There is no man that imparteth his joys to his friends 
but he joyeth the more; and no man that imparteth his 
griefs to his friend, but he grieveth the less. 

7. Fame is like a river that beareth up things light and 
swollen, and drowns things weighty and solid. 

8. Great riches have sold more men than they have 
bought. 

9. The first creature of God, in the works of the days, 
was the light of the sense; the last was the light of the 
reason; and His Sabbath work, ever since, is the illumina¬ 
tion of His Spirit. 


























124 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 

10. Clear and round dealing is the honour of man’s 
nature. 

11. The mislayer of a stone is to blame; but it is the 
unjust judge that is the capital remover of landmarks. 
One foul sentence doth more hurt than many foul ex¬ 
amples. 

12. I can find no space of ground that lieth vacant and 
unsown in the matter of divinity; so diligent have men 
been, either in sowing of good seed or in sowing of tares. 

13. It is not St Augustine’s, nor St Ambrose’s works, 
that will make so wise a divine as ecclesiastical history, 
thoroughly read and observed. 

14. Divine prophecies being of the nature of their 
Author, with whom a thousand years are as but one day, 
are not fulfilled punctually at once, but have springing and 
germanent accomplishment through many ages, though 
the height of fulness of them may refer to some one age. 

15. Earnest writing must not hastily be condemned; 
for men cannot contend coldly, and without affection, 
about things which they hold dear and precious. 

16. The harmony of a science, supporting each part the 
other, is, and ought to be, the true and brief confutation 
and suppression of all the smaller sort of objections. 

17. The night was even now; but that name is lost; 
it is now not late, but early. Mine eyes begin to discharge 
their watch, and compound with this fleshly weakness for a 
time of perpetual rest; and I shall presently be as happy 
as though I had died the first hour I was born. Believe 
it, the sweetest Canticle is Nimc Dimittis ,— Now lettest 
Thou Thy servant depart in peace. 
















ABBOT. 125 


ABBOT (ARCHBISHOP). 

BORN 1562—DIED 1633. 

1. To be blind and have no guide, and yet to walk there, 
where treading awry is the stumbling into hell; to be 
hungry and to famish ; to suck, but on dry breasts ; this is 
the evil of all evils * 

2. The tempter would insinuate to Jonah that he was 
but one man. What! One man to a multitude ; a single 
person to a whole kingdom ! Yea; but Jonah might have 
heard, that the day was when those that were with Elisha 
and his servant were more in number than all the 
enemies which were against them. Where God is, and 
His angels, there man is not alone. 

3. It shall be but a bad shift for the miscreants of the 
earth to cry, in the day of vengeance, to the mountains 
and to the rocks, ‘ Fall on us.’ 

4. In these most perilous times, in which Satan frets 
and rages; in which Papism is a little weakened, but 
Atheism waxes strong, and the sins of men cry loud; but, 
on the other side, pity waxes thin, and charity grows cold; 
this should be a lively motion to the Spirit of God in us, 
that with alacrity we may go forward to the building up 
of God’s house, and not be wearied in well doing, or with¬ 
draw ourselves from the work. 

5. Surely God looks for much, of them whom He has 
singled out to be messengers of His glory. 




126 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


6. Shall many smart for one? Here is a question. 
But learn here God’s hatred to sin; learn here His deep 
and endless wisdom. His wisdom shines in this, that 
oftentimes, with one man, He strikes the many, for reasons 
which, in themselves, are very different; being evermore 
well-known to His majesty, but secret to us, the party 
principal He punishes; to the next He teaches obedience; 
the patience of the third He will have to be tried; and so 
forward with the rest; in all He seeks His glory; His 
honour in the wicked, His true fear in the good. If all 
these be whipped at once, He does no wrong to any. 

7. It is better to fear too much than to presume but a 
little. Our God is of fearful majesty. 

8. Let us fear the Lord for His love, and love Him for 
His mercy; let us not provoke Him to strike us, because 
otherwise He cannot awake us; but let us watch to Him 
that His anger may sleep to us. 

9. The glass is bright but brittle; it cannot endure the 
hammer; the gold is another kind of metal; do you melt 
it, or do you rub it, or do you beat it, it shineth still the 
more orient. So it is with our faith: it does not fear the 
touch-stone. 

10. My heart oftentimes doth ache, and my very soul 
doth tremble, to think what guides be over souls in many 
places; I say over the souls of men, which are the most 
precious substances that God hath made under the heaven, 
and for the ransoming of which Christ Jesus came down 
from His glory. 

11. Justice called for a death; take My death, saith 
the Saviour, let one die for the people, the head for all 





ABBOT. 127 

the members. The King of men and angels had this 
choice put to Him, that either Himself or His, the mystical 
head or body, should undergo a death; He took the turn 
upon Himself, and so wrought a reconcilement from His 
Father toward His Church. To procure our peace, He 
plucked wars upon Himself; and what we should have 
borne, His humanity did sustain with a lovely change of 
our parts, for the unrighteous sinneth and the righteous 
man is punished. This brought a way to the wandering; 
this brought life to the dying and safety to the perishing; 
for His loss was our gain, and His impoverishing our 
enriching. 

12. This it is which holdeth us when we are living; this 
it is which helpeth us when we are dying. A God become 
man ! The celestial made terrestrial! Our Judge become 
our Jesus! 

13. When he appointeth salvation, then everything in 
His time shall work unto salvation, but it must be in His 
time. He draweth the unwilling to Him, the broken He 
bindeth up, the lost He seeketh out; He toucheth with 
remorse that which was before as adamant; the hardest 
heart he doth mollify. He that ordaineth glory to any 
will give him grace to attain it; He who is the Life is the 
way leading to that life; He who giveth the one granteth 
the other : when He determineth the end, then also He 
offereth the means to apprehend that end. 
















WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


128 


SUTTON (CHRISTOPHER). 

BORN 1565—DIED 1629. 

1. To meditate of the life of Him by whom we have 
eternal life, is the very life of life. 

2. Ought we not often in soul to go with the wise men 
to Bethlehem, by the direction of the star of grace, and there 
fall down and worship the little King, there offer the gold 
of charity, the frankincense of devotion, the myrrh of 
penitency, and return, not by cruel Herod or by troubled 
Jerusalem, but another way, a better way, unto our long 
and happy home ! 

3. Merciful Lord, to compare our coldness with their 
fervency, our negligence with their industry, our faint love 
with their burning charity, we shall find such odds, as we 
may sorrow to see our own defects in this case. Calling 
to mind the learning of the ancient fathers, we may think 
they did nothing but read; seeing their works, that they 
did nothing but write ; considering their devotion, that they 
did nothing but pray. 

4. Farewell, glory of the world, for in thy delights pro¬ 
mises are made and never kept; in thy vineyard men 
labour, but are never rewarded. Farewell world, which 
callest the rash, valiant; proud, seemly; covetous, good 
husbands ; the babbler, eloquent; the wanton, youthful. 
Farewell world, which deceivest all that trust in thee; 
which dost promise to the ambitious honour; to the 
















SUTTON. 


greedy, rewards; to the covetous, riches; to the young, 
time. Farewell, I say, vainglory, which, because thou art 
not of God, failest all. 

5. Happy honour, when Jesus calleth from tears to 
joy. How dry and hard art thou without Jesus ! How 
foolish and vain if thou covetest anything without Jesus ! 
Is not this greater loss than if thou hadst lost the whole 
world? What can the world bestow without Jesus? 
To be without Jesus is a grievous hell, and to be with 
Jesus is a sweet paradise. If Jesus be with thee, no 
enemy can hurt thee; if Jesus be from thee, no friend can 
help. He is most poor that liveth without Jesus, and he 
is most rich who is with Jesus. 

6. To deny our goods, our friends, yea, our very plea¬ 
sures, is very much ; and yet, to follow Christ we must go 
a step further; that is, to wit, we must deny even our 
very selves. It is not only required that we deny 
that which is ours, but even ut nos that we deny ourselves 
also. 

7. It is a hard saying, ‘Take up thy cross’: it will 
be harder, ‘ Depart, ye cursed’! Christ hath many 
lovers of His kingdom, but few lovers of his cross ; many 
that follow Him to the breaking of bread, few to the 
drinking of His cup. 

8. The head doth not rise without the body: the head 
is risen, the body therefore shall rise. So the resurrection 
of Christ is the cause of our resurrection; and He rising 
we all rise. 

9. Let us follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth, at 
least whither we are able to go. Let us follow Him 


1 





130 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


suffering, by mortifying the flesh: let us follow Him 
rising, by newness of life; but most joyfully of all, let 
us follow Him ascending, by setting our affections on 
heavenly things, or things above. 

io. A remembrance of Christ’s second coming unto 
judgment ought to incite every well-minded Christian 
to study his soul. Let him call to mind that the great 
Lord of heaven and earth, whom we have all this while 
proposed unto ourselves (according to His humanity) 
the best pattern for imitation of living, even Christ 
Jesus, He is gone into a far country, and hath com¬ 
mitted His goods unto us His servants, willing us all 
to watch, because He will return at an hour we think 
not of. 

n. Concerning Christ’s coming to judgment, we are 
to observe, out of the Evangelist, the things going before, 
things accompanying His coming, and things that follow 
after; they are so many heralds sent before to proclaim 
the command of the King, which are these, that we shall 
hear of false prophets, wars, and rumours of wars, famines, 
pestilences, earthquakes, the abounding of iniquity, wax¬ 
ing cold of charity, and such like. These signs shew 
before that the time is near: for the things that do 
accompany His coming, they are the darkening of the 
sun, the moon losing her light, the falling of the stars of 
heaven, the trouble of the powers of heaven. 

12. When this or little world, Man, suffereth 

his last agony; when his sense is troubled, and the 
whole body distressed (it is a sign that he is upon his 
dissolving), how much more shall this be done in the 















SUTTON. 


131 


greater world, where these things are seen 1 The things 
following after, are the separating of the sheep and 
goats; the appointing to the left and right hand : 
the two sentences of judgment, Go, you cursed! and, 
Come, ye blessed ! the visible appearing of the King 
of glory. Then Pilate shall not need to ask, Art Thou 
a King 1 but he shall see it, that He is a King of 
kings, and Lord of lords. Again, as we know the signs 
of old age, but not the year, month, week, nor day, 
when the aged shall depart; so, the world to be dissolved 
we know by God’s word, and the signs precedent; but 
when, we know not. 









WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


LINDS A Y (DA VID). 

BORN (ABOUT) 1570—DIED 1627. 

1. Let man behold that unspeakable love wherewith 
God hath loved him, and that rare account his God 
maketh of him in that shining glass of the creation of the 
world. 

2. Sin is a monstrous foul thing, defiling everything it 
toucheth, so that our holy God can, upon no condition, 
join with it. 

3. Let none beside thy God, teaching thee by His 
written word, be thy master and leader on earth, if thou 
wouldest walk hereafter with Him. 

4. Let all sick in soul because of sin, to whose ears the 
sound of the sweet name of that great Physician, Jesus, 
is come, by the means of the Gospel seek to Him for 
medicine, whom they cannot find but in His word. 

5. That white shining lily, Jesus, is not to be found 
but among pricking thorns. 

6. Sweet wise Jesus will cross thee first, if He be to 
crown thee afterwards. 

7. While thou livest here, desire not to live, but to that 
God and for that God who made thee and sent thee 
hither. 

8. Let man consider how dearly sweet Jesus hath loved 
him. 

9. Honourable, precious, and forcible beyond measure, 







LINDS A Y. 133 


is that clean and cleansing blood of Jesus, blessed for 
evermore. 

10. Clean Jesus will not wash thee in His clean, cleans¬ 
ing blood, to the end that thou may prove a swine but a 
swan; a filthy dog, but a clean turtle-dove; and so not a 
bond-slave to sin and Satan, but a free king to God, His 
and thy Father. 

11. He whom blessed Jesus hath made a son unto God, 
to se 7 ve His Majesty for a while, shall also be made by 
Jesus a king unto God, to reig?i with Him for ever. 

12. Seek not that which is God’s but God Himself. 

13. No person nor thing can possibly content the sight, 
the smell, the taste, the touch, of that royal eagle, the 
true Christian, beside that blessed Jesus, who sometime 
was dead, but is alive, blessed for evermore. 

14. All men should so live in the world, that they may 
amend the world. 

15. O Lord God! when shall the loose Christians of 
this last age be enlightened and quickened in soul by Thy 
majesty? In mercy look on their dead souls! 

16. But how shall you love this Jesus, O my soul? 
Lend thine ears unto Jesus ; cast thine eyes upon Jesus ; 
and out of that love wherewith He hath loved thee, learn 
thou, I pray thee, how to love again. 









134 


WORDS OLD AND NR W. 


HALL (BISHOP). 

BORN 1574—DIED 1656. 

1. I am glad of your sorrow; and should weep for you, 
if you did not thus mourn. Your sorrow is, that you can¬ 
not enough grieve for your sins. Let me tell you that the 
angels themselves sing this lamentation; neither doth the 
earth afford any so sweet music, in the ears of God. This 
heavinesses the way to joy. Worldly sorrow is worthy of 
pity, because it leadeth to death; but this deserves 
nothing but envy and gratulation. 

2. Think how little the world can do for you, and what 
it doth how deceitfully; what stings there are with its 
honey; what farewell succeeds its welcome. When this 
Jael brings you milk in the one hand, know, she hath a 
nail in the other. 

3. Cares are a heavy load, and uneasy : these must be 
laid down at the bottom of this hill, if we ever look to 
attain the top. Thou art loaded with household cares, 
perhaps public ; I bid thee not cast them away: even 
these have their season, which thou canst not omit with¬ 
out impiety : I bid thee lay them down at thy closet door, 

when thou attemptest this work. Let them in with thee_ 

thou shalt find them troublesome companions, ever dis¬ 
tracting thee from thy best errand. Thou wouldest think 
of heaven; thy barn comes in thy way, or perhaps thy 
’count-book, or thy coffers; or, it may be, thy mind is 
















HALL . 135 


beforehand travelling upon the morrow’s journey. So, 
while thou thinkest of many things, thou thinkest of - 
nothing; while thou wouldest go many ways, thou standest 
still. 

4. There is nothing, but man, that respecteth greatness: 
not God, not nature, not disease, not death, not judgment. 
Not God : He is no accepter of persons. Not nature: we 
see the sons of princes born as naked as the poorest; and 
the poor child as fair, well favoured, strong, witty, as the 
heir of nobles. Not disease, death, judgment: they sicken 
alike, die alike, fare alike after death. There is nothing, 
besides natural men, of whom goodness is not respected. 

I will honour greatness in others; but, for myself, I will 
esteem a dram of goodness worth a whole world of 
greatness. 

5. If I die, the world shall miss me but a little; I shall 
miss it less. Not it me, because it hath such store of 
better men; not I it, because it hath so much ill, and I 
shall have so much happiness. 

6. With men it is a good rule, to try first, and then to 
trust; with God it is contrary. I will first trust Him, as 
most wise, omnipotent, merciful, and try Him afterwards. 

I know it is as impossible for Him to deceive me, as not 
to be. 

7. Every man hath a heaven and a hell. Earth is a 
wicked man’s heaven; his hell is to come. On the con¬ 
trary, the godly have their hell upon earth, where they 
are vexed with temptations and afflictions, by Satan and 
his accomplices; their heaven is above, in endless happi¬ 
ness. If it be ill with me on earth, it is well my torment 








136 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


is so short and so easy; I will not be so covetous as to 
hope for two heavens. 

8. Good prayers never came weeping home: I am sure 
I shall receive, either what I ask, or what I should ask. 

9. I never loved those Salamanders that are never well 
but when they are in the fire of contention. I will rather 
suffer a thousand wrongs than offer one; I will suffer a 
hundred, rather than return one; I will suffer many, ere I 
complain of one, and endeavour to right it by contending. 
I have ever found, that to strive with my superior is 
furious; with my equal, doubtful; my inferior, sordid and 
base; with any, full of unquietness. 

10. I would rather confess my ignorance than falsely 
profess knowledge. It is no shame not to know all things; 
but it is a just shame to overreach anything. 

11. Every sickness is a little death. I will be content 
to die oft, that I may die once well. 

12. Some children are of that nature, that they are 
never well but while the rod is over them ; such am I to 
God. Let Him beat me, so He amend me; let Him 
take all away from me, so He give me Himself. 






% 

DA VENANT. 137 


DA VENANT (BISHOP). 

BORN 1576—DIED 1641. 

1. In justification we are liberated from the chains of 
our sins, so far as they bound us for condemnation, yea, 
even so far as they held us under the dominion of Satan; 
and this suffices for its being truly said that the chains of 
our sins are broken asunder by the grace of God; for the 
remains thereof, abiding in us, have not the nature of a 
chain, but are themselves enchained by the grace now 
predominant over them, and treading them, as it were, 
under foot. 

2. As original righteousness comprehended the spiritual 
light of the mind, so original sin implies the densest mental 
darkness. 

3. We acknowledge that God infuses a righteousness, 
in the very act of justifying; but we deny that the sentence 
of God, in justifying, has respect to this as the cause by 
which man is constituted justified. 

4. The perfect obedience of Christ, the Mediator, is the 
formal cause of our justification. 

5. The justification of believers does not rest on this, 
that they have in themselves a quality of new righteous¬ 
ness, which they would venture to subject to a legal 
examination of the strict judgment of God; but that, by 
and through the merits of the Redeemer, in whom they 
believe, they are not to undergo such judgments, but are 





138 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 

dealt with as if they had in themselves exact legal right¬ 
eousness. 

6. The obedience of Christ, whereby He fulfilled the 
law, is so imputed to His mystical members, that, in con¬ 
sideration of it, they stand guiltless before God, justified 
and accepted to everlasting life. 

7. God, by His decree, transferred the fulfilling of the 
law to Christ, the God-man, and willed that that obedience 
and righteousness which Christ performed, in our flesh, 
should become ours by imputation. The Apostle most 
clearly teaches that Christ was made subject to the law, 
not for himself, but for us; whence it will follow, that the 
fruit of His obedience redounds to us; which is the same 
as that the righteousness of Christ, or His perfect fulfilling 
of the law, is imputed to us. 

8. Christ not only made satisfaction for us by under¬ 
going the penalty of the cross, but also by taking upon 
Himself the burden of the law. 

9. The blood of Christ washes and reconciles to God, 
not the righteous and those who are fulfilling the law, but 
sinners and the transgressors of the law. 

10. How will he obtain peace by faith, who is uncertain 
whether he possesses faith or not 1 ? Faith resembles a 
great light, which makes itself visible as well as other 
things. 

11. The Romanists admit that there is an assurance of 
hope , of the remission of sins, &c., but assent not to there 
being an assurance of faith . It is vain to make a distinc¬ 
tion between the assurance of hope and the assurance of 
faith , seing the hope of salvation cannot fluctuate in the 





DA VENA NT. 


139 


justified man, unless his faith in Christ fluctuates at the 
same time; nor can faith remain assured, except where 
hope maintains the same certainty. 

12. Such is the efficacy of the promises of the Gospel, 
that, as soon as any one receives them by a living faith, 
and applies them to himself, he straightway derives from 
thence firm and solid consolation. But how can the pro¬ 
mise of the forgiveness of sins yield to the believer solid 
comfort, while he remains uncertain whether he has faith 
or not? . . . Faith wrought by the Spirit apprehends the 
forgiveness of sins, and the paternal love of God towards 
us. This faith, in laying hold of the free love of God 
towards us, does not make men reckless and easy; but the 
want of this assurance is the cause why men wallow in 
earthly lusts. ‘ Men do not ’ (says Bernard) ‘ repay the 
love of God with a return of love, unless as the Spirit re¬ 
veals to them, through faith, the eternal purpose of God 
respecting their future salvation.’ 
















140 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


SIBBES. 

BORN 1577—DIED 1635. 

1. When we come to be religious, we lose not our 
pleasure, but translate it. Before we fed on common 
notions, but now we live on holy truths. 

2. The whole life of a Christian should be nothing but 
praises to God. 

3. Is it not an unreasonable speech for a man at mid¬ 
night to say, It will never be day h It is as unreasonable 
for a man in trouble to say, O Lord, I shall never get 
free ; it will be always thus ! 

4. Having given up ourselves to God, let us comfort our 
souls that God is our God. When riches, and men, and 
our lives fail, yet God is ours. We are now God’s Davids, 
God’s Pauls, God’s Abrahams. We have an everlasting 
being with Him, as one with Jesus Christ his Son. 

5. God takes it unkindly if we weep too much for the 
loss of a wife, or child, or friend, or for any cross in this 
life ; for it is a sign that we do not fetch our comfort from 
Him. Nay, though our weeping be for sin, we must keep 
moderation, with one eye looking on our sins, and the other 
on God’s mercy in Christ. If, therefore, the best grief 
should be moderated, how much more the other! 

6. That is spiritual knowledge which alters the relish of 
the soul; for we must know there is a bitter opposition in 
our nature against all saving truths; especially, there is a 







SIBBES. 141 


contrariety between our nature and that doctrine which 
teaches us we must deny ourselves and be saved by another. 
The soul must relish before it can digest. 

7. When thou art disappointed with men, retire to God 
and to his promises; and build upon this, that the Lord 
will not be wanting in anything to do thee good. 

8. Faith makes us kings, because thereby we marry the 
King of heaven. The church is the queen of heaven, 
and Christ is the king of heaven. 

9. If we have a time of sinning, God will have a time 
of punishing. 

10. If the touch of Christ in his abasement upon earth 
drew virtue from Him, certain it is that faith cannot touch 
Christ in heaven but it will draw a quieting virtue from 
Him which will in some measure stop the issues of an 
unquiet spirit. 

11. Sin is not so sweet in the committing as it is heavy 
and bitter in the reckoning. 

12. He wants no company that hath Christ for his 
companion. , 

13. Most of our disquietness in our calling is that we 
trouble ourselves about God’s work Trust God and be 
doing, and let Him alone with the rest. 

14. God is never nearer his church than when trouble 
is near. 

15. Every Christian may truly say, God loves me better 
than I do myself. 

16. God hath two sanctuaries; he hath two heavens: 
the heaven of heavens and a broken spirit. 





142 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


DICKSON (DA VID). 

BORN 1583—DIED 1663. 

1. The invincible grace of God, working regeneration 
and conversion, does not destroy the freedom of man’s 
will, but makes it truly free, and perfects it. 

2. Grow in the estimation of Christ’s righteousness. 

3. Let no man complain of wrong done to man’s free 
will, when God stops its way to hell; wisely, powerfully, 
graciously and sweetly moveth it to choose the way of 
life ; but rather let men beware to take the glory of actual 
conversion from God, and either give it wholly to their 
idol of free-will, or make it sharer of the glory of regene¬ 
ration with God. 

4. That man who, daily, in the sense of his sinfulness 
and poverty, fleeth unto Jesus Christ, that he may be jus¬ 
tified by His righteousness, and endeavoureth, by faith in 
Him, to bring forth the fruits of new obedience, and doth 
not put confidence in his works, when he hath done them, 
but rejoiceth in Jesus Christ, the Fountain of holiness and 
blessedness,—that man is a new creature. 

5. Let us beware of laying any sort of merit upon our 
daily exercise of faith and sorrow for sin; otherwise we 
shall be found offerers unto God of satisfaction from us, 
and not suitors of remission of sins from God. 

6. Be comforted in that Lord who gathereth the ragged 
and scattered desires of supplicants, and taketh away the 
iniquity of the service of His clients, as our High Priest, 












DICKSON ; 


143 


bearing (in His appearing for us), as it were, in His fore¬ 
head, holiness to the Lord. 

7. God is worthy to be credited, upon His word with¬ 
out a pawn; yea, when His dispensation seeineth contrary 
to His promise. 

8. Christ’s obedience, even to the death of the cross, 

did begin in His emptying Himself to take on our 

nature and the shape of a servant, and did run on till 

► 

His resurrection and ascension. As for His sufferings 
in the end of His life, both in soul and body, they were 
the completing of His formerly begun obedience ; but 
were not His only obedience for us, or His only suffering 
for us. 

9. Man, by the law of nature, is bound to give credit 
to God when He speaketh; and bound to trust in God 
when He offereth Himself as a Friend and a Father to 
him; and when God bids him seek His face, he is bound 
to obey Him, and seek His face. 

10. There remaineth for making of the covenant (of 
reconciliation), but that the hearer do honestly answer, 

£ The offer and condition pleaseth me well; I consent to 
be reconciled.’ 

11. The more poor and empty a man is in his own eyes, 
he ought to draw the more near unto the riches of grace 
in Christ. 

12. We need not be afraid lest any person go, or be 
sent, too soon unto Christ, and that the teacher of this 
doctrine be supposed to foster presumption, and to offer 
untimeous consolation. 













WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


144 


MEDE (JOSEPH). 

BORN 1588 DIED 1638. 

1. The Christian as well as the Jew, after six days spent 
in his own works, is to sanctify the seventh, that he may 
profess himself thereby a servant of God, the Creator of 
heaven and earth, as well as the Jew. For the quotum the 
Jew and Christian agree; but in designation of the day 
they differ. For the Christian chooseth for his holy day 
that which, with the Jew, was the first day of the week, 
and calls it the Lord’s day, that he might thereby profess 
himself a servant of that God who, on the morning of that 
day, vanquished Satan, the spiritual Pharaoh, and redeemed 
us from our spiritual thraldom by raising Jesus Christ our 
Lord from the dead; begetting us, instead of an earthly 
Canaan, to an inheritance incorruptible in the heavens. 
The Christian, by the day he hallows, professes himself a 
Christian. The Jew and Christian make their designa¬ 
tion of their day on like ground : the Jews, the memorial 
day of their deliverance from the temporal Egypt and 
temporal Pharaoh ; the Christians, the memorial day of 
their deliverance from the spiritual Egypt and spiritual 
Pharaoh. 

2. It would be uncomely for a man to wear a veil, that 
is, a woman’s habit; so was it uncomely for a woman to 
be without a veil, that is, in the guise and dress of a man 
(1 Cor. xi. 10); and howsoever the devils of the Gentiles 







MEDE. 145 


took pleasure in uncomeliness, yet the God they wor¬ 
shipped, and His holy angels who were present at their 
devotions, loved a comely accommodation, agreeable to 
nature and custom, in such as worshipped Him. 

3. Whence comes that unchristian, or, indeed, atheisti¬ 
cal language, ‘ A base priest; a paltry priest! it would 
never have grieved me had any other served me thus; but 
to be served thus by a base priest, who can endure it?’ 
Tell me in good earnest, is this to honour a priest or a 
prophet in the name of a prophet (Matt. x. 41) • or not 
rather, point blank unto it, to reproach and dishonour 
him under that reverend name, that is, to despise and 
reproach the calling itself? For how can a man honour 
that condition, the name whereof he thinks to be a re¬ 
proach ? Is any man wont to say, 4 A base lord, a base 
gentleman, a base Christian’ ? No. And why ? Because 
these are terms and titles of honour. Judge, then, by 
this, what account they make of God’s ambre , who turn 
the very title of their calling into a name of reproach; and 
what reward, by proportion, they are like to merit at 
Christ’s hand. Not a prophet's, I am sure; and whether 
a Christian's or not, themselves may judge. 

4. By reason of sin, heaven and earth, God and man, 
were at enmity; but by Christ this is taken away, and 
man, by forgiveness of sin, restored unto peace and favour 
with God. And as, by this nativity, God and man became 
one person, so, by this conjunction, heaven and earth, 
angels and men, become one fellowship, one city and 
kingdom of God. 

5. The way whereby the blessed Seed should vanquish 


K 





146 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


Satan, and redeem His elect out of his power and jurisdic¬ 
tion, was by becoming a sacrifice for sin, so to cancel the 
title whereby the devil held the world in thraldom. 

6. I will not look upon any other cause or occasion of 
my misery, of my cross or calamity; but look unto my 
sin, and give glory to God, who sent the hand which hath 
done all this unto me. 

7. Wouldest thou have comfort in thy misery? wouldest 
thou have joy in all thy sorrows ? wouldest thou find rest 
in the greatest troubles of thy life ? wouldest thou welcome 
the Lord Jesus at His coming ? Oh labour, then, to make 
thy election sure. Never cease till thou hast gotten the 
seal and earnest of thy salvation; renounce all kind of 
peace till thou hast found the peace of conscience; dis¬ 
card all joy till thou feelest the joy of the Holy Ghost. 
Do this, and there is no calamity so great but thou mayest 
undergo it; no burden so heavy but thou mayest easily 
bear it. Do this, and thou shalt live in the fear, die in 
the favour, and rise in the power of God the Father, and 
help to make up the heavenly concert, singing, with the 
saints and angels, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, glory, and honour, 
and praise be unto the Lamb, and to Him that sitteth upon 
the throne, for evermore ! 














QUARLES. 


QUARLES (FRANCIS). 

BORN 1592—DIED 1644. 

1. The gate of heaven is strait; canst thou hope to 
enter without breaking ? The bubble that would pass the 
flood-gates must first dissolve. 

2. Think not that a pleasure which God had threatened; 
nor that a blessing which heaven hath cursed. 

3. My soul, how hast thou profaned that day thy God 
hath sanctified ! how hast thou encroached on that which 
Heaven hath set apart ! If thy impatience cannot act a 
Sabbath twelve hours, what happiness canst thou expect 
in a perpetual Sabbath ? Is six days too little for thyself, 
and two hours too much for thy God 1 

4. Art thou in bondage ? O my soul, here is freedom; 
art thou dejected 1 here is comfort; art thou pursued? 
here is a refuge ; art thou overburdened ? here is rest; 
art thou condemned 1 here is a pardon. 

5. Lord, I am sick, I fly to Him as my Physician ; I 
am a trespasser, I fly to Him my Advocate ; I am a suitor, 
I fly to Him my Mediator; I am a delinquent, I fly to 
Him my Sanctuary; I am a sinner, I fly to Him my 
Saviour. 

6. O sweet Jesus, pierce the marrow of my soul with 
the shafts of Thy love, that it may burn and melt, and 
languish with the only desire of Thee. Let it always 
desire Thee, and seek Thee, and find Thee, and sweetly 
















14S WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


rest in Thee. Be Thou in all my thoughts, in all my 
words, in all my actions ; that both my thoughts, my 
words, and my actions being sanctified by Thee here, I 
may be glorified by Thee hereafter. 

7. If thy sins fear the hand of justice, behold thy Sanc¬ 
tuary; if thy offences tremble before the Judge, behold 
thy Advocate; if thy creditor threaten a prison, behold 
thy bail. Behold the Lamb of God that hath taken 
thy sins from thee: behold the Blessed of heaven and 
earth that hath prepared a kingdom for thee. Be ravished, 
O my soul! Oh bless the name of Elohim ! Oh bless the 
name of our Emmanuel, with praises and eternal halle¬ 
lujahs ! 

8. Thinkest thou, my soul, to be made happy by the 
smiles of earth, or unhappy by her frowns ? When she 
fawns upon thee, she deludes thee; when she kisses thee, 
she betrays thee. She brings the butter in a lordly dish, 
and bears a hammer in her deadly hand. Trust not her 
flattery, O my soul, nor let her malice move thee. Her 
music is thy magic; her sweetness is thy snare; she is 
the highway to eternal death. If thou love her, thou hast 
begun thy journey; if thou honour her, thou mendest thy 
pace; if thou obey her, thou art at thy journey’s end. 
When she distastes thee, Christ relishes in thee ; when 
she afflicts thee, God instructs thee; when she locks 
her gates against thee, heaven opens for thee; when she 
disdains thee, God honours thee; when she forsakes 
thee, He owns thee; when she persecutes thee, He 
qrowns thee. Why art thou then disquieted, my soul, 
and why is thy spirit troubled within thee? Trust thou 















QUARLES. 


149 


in Him by faith: if thou want comfort, fly to Him by 
prayer. 

9. How dost thou wrong the God of mercy, how slight 
the God of truth ! He that hears the cry of ravens, and 
feeds them with a gracious hand, will He be deaf to thee? 
He that robes the lilies of the field, that neither sue nor 
care to be apparelled, will He deny thee those graces He 
hath commanded thee to ask ? Art thou hungry ? He is 
the bread of life. Art thou thirsty? He is the water of life? 
Art thou naked ? fly to Him, and He will give thee the 
righteousness of His own Son. Build upon His promise, 
who is truth itself; rely upon His mercy, who is goodness 
itself. Art thou a prodigal? yet remember thou art a son. 
Is He offended? He will not forget He is a Father. 
Come, therefore, with a filial boldness, and He will grant 
thy heart’s desire. 












WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


150 


MESTREZAT (A FRENCH DIVINE). 

BORN 1592—DIED 1657. 

1. The law said, ‘This do, and live;’ but the Gospel 
says, Do this, because God hath freely given thee life. 
This makes our obedience not servile but filial, springing 
from gratitude and love. 

2. It was fitting that the Redeemer of the human race 
should be the same who had been its Creator, since it did 
not require less power to restore life to man, than to impart 
it at the beginning. 

3. To join in one person the Creator with the creature, 
the Infinite with the finite, the Eternal with a being 
brought forth in time, far surpasses all the wonders of 
creation. 

4. Fear not, O mortals, to draw nigh unto God; in 
Him you have your nature; no longer will He be a con¬ 
suming fire to you, seeing He yet retains your flesh. 

5. It behoved our Lord Jesus Christ to be made to 
us everlasting life by His death. Though He is the 
source of life, yet He could not have restored life to us 
without having first died. 

6. What is there, O believers, that should disturb 
your joy and peace, since the blood of God is your 
ransom 1 

7. Faith is the hand by which we lay hold on Jesus. 
By faith, we are not only permitted to put the finger into 








MESTREZA T. 


the print of the nails, and to thrust the hand into His 
side, but the very soul finds refuge in His wounds. 

8. Faith justifies us, not by its merit or worth; for in 
this way we should be justified by our works, or by faith 
as by a work; but it justifies us by referring us to Jesus 
Christ, and by the oneness which it establishes between 
Him and us. 

9. The feeling which we have in our souls, of the ex¬ 
piation of sin by the blood of Jesus Christ, is that inward 
witness, that white stone with the new name written on it, 
which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it. 

10. Believers have to engage with enemies, already 
vanquished by Jesus Christ, their Head; so that their 
combat is nothing more than a continued application of 
the victory which He has obtained for them. 

11. Believers, under the old covenant, waited for the 
coming of Christ in the flesh, to atone for sin by the 
sacrifice of Himself. The Christian Church is now in 
expectation of His Second coming, of which the angels 
said to the disciples, ‘This same Jesus shall so come as 
ye have seen Him go into heaven.’ 

12. Christ is the Head of the church and the Saviour 
of the body. Hence it appears that to stand unconfounded 
before Him in the day of judgment, nothing is necessary 
but to be found in Him. Since Christ Himself is or¬ 
dained to be the Judge of quick and dead, the sentence 
which He shall pronounce will not be to the hurt of His 
members, who are a part of Himself. The Apostle, 
therefore, says, that He shall come to be glorified in His 
saints; and, for this reason, the church, which is the 






152 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


whole body of believers, is represented as hastening His 
coming, saying, ‘Even so come, Lord Jesus.’ 

13. When believers are on their deathbeds, and appa¬ 
rently deprived of all their faculties, then the Holy Spirit 
can and does act upon them, by energies and operations 
altogether inexplicable, as He acted upon the babe in the 
womb of Elizabeth. 

14. Though Christ is no more in this world, He is still 
God with us, by the indissoluble union of our nature with 
His. Wherever He is, He hath us with Him, in that 
nature which He hath united to His Godhead. Thus, 
since the birth of the Son of God, God is ever with 
men. 



t 
















HERBERT. 153 


HERBERT (GEORGE). 

BORN 1593—DIED 1632. 

1. I can never do too much for Him that hath done so 
much for me. And I will labour to be like my Saviour, 
by making humility lovely in the eyes of all men, and by 
following the merciful and meek example of my dear 
Jesus. 

2. I beseech you to be cheerful, and comfort yourself 
with the God of all comfort, who is not willing to behold 
any sorrow, but for sin. 

3. As the earth is but a point in respect of the heavens, 
so are earthly troubles compared to heavenly joys. 

4. I never find, Blessed be the rich; or, Blessed be the 
noble ; but, Blessed be the meek, blessed be the poor, 
blessed be the mourners. And yet, O God, most carry 
themselves, as if they not only not desired, but even 
feared to be blessed. 

5. God intends your soul to be a sacred temple for 
Himself to dwell in, and will not allow any room there for 
such an inmate as grief, or allow that any sadness shall be 
His competitor. 

6. We live in an age that hath more need of good ex¬ 
amples than precepts. 

7. I would not willingly pass one day of my life without 
comforting a sad soul or shewing mercy. 

8. The parson’s yea is yea, and nay, nay; and his 







154 WOMBS OLD AND NEW. 


apparel plain, but reverend and clean, without spots, or 
dust, or smell; the purity of his mind breaking out and 
dilating itself even to his body, clothes, and habitation. 

9. What an admirable Epistle is the second to the 
Corinthians ! How full of affections ! He joys and he 
is sorry, he grieves and he glories. N ever was there such 
care of a flock expressed, save in the great Shepherd of the 
fold, who first shed tears over Jerusalem, and afterwards 
blood. 

1 o. Man would sit down at this world; God bids him 
sell it, and purchase a better. 

11. A prophecy is a wonder sent to posterity, lest they 
complain of want of wonders. It is a letter sealed and 
sent, which to the bearer is but paper, but to the receiver 
and opener is full of power. 

12. Oh make Thy word a swift word, passing from the 
ear to the heart, and from the heart to the life and con¬ 
versation. 

13. Difficulties are so far from cooling Christians that 
they whet them. 






GOODWIN. 


155 


GOODWIN (THOMAS). 

BORN 1599—DIED 1679. 

1. Seek to be pardoned, but above all seek to be be¬ 
loved. 

2. They only are wise who are wise unto salvation. 

3. Surely that which hath long ago satisfied God Him¬ 
self for the sins of many thousands now in heaven, may 
well serve to satisfy the heart and conscience of any sinner 
now upon earth. 

4. Is Christ God’s Beloved, with and in whom He is 
well pleased ? And is He not thy Beloved ? What is the 
matter? Is thy narrow soul more curious about an object 
of love than God Himself is ? Oh let Him be to each of 
us our Beloved ! If He be God’s Beloved, He may well 
be thine. Is He able to satisfy God’s best thoughts, and 
is He not able to satisfy thee, poor creature ? God Him¬ 
self is satisfied, and at rest in Him. Says Christ, 1 1 was 
daily His delight’; and wouldst thou be happier than 
God is? Is He God’s Beloved, in whom He is well 
pleased, and wilt thou be pleased with anything but 
Christ ? 

5. Let thy soul be set on the highest mount that any 
creature was ever set upon, and enlarged to take in the 
most spacious prospect, both of sin, and misery, and diffi¬ 
culties of being saved, that ever yet any poor soul did find 
within itself; yea, join to these all the hindrances and 


















156 WORDS OLD AND NEW, 


objections that the heart of man can invent against itself 
and salvation; lift up thine eyes and look to the utmost 
thou canst see ; yet Christ, by His intercession, is able to 
save thee beyond the horizon and utmost compass of thy 
thoughts, even ‘ to the uttermost.’ 

6. Why do men leave Christ for the pleasures of the 
world ? Because these are real things to them. There¬ 
fore God comes and weighs down the reality of the things 
of this world, by the reality of the things of the world to 
come. 

7. To go to God upon the freeness of His grace and 
promises, and to refer our will to His, and cast ourselves 
into those everlasting arms, is as if a man should leave his 
own standing, and cast himself into the arms of a mighty 
giant that stands upon another pinnacle—one whom he 
has often wronged—and he himself has no hands to lay 
hold of him by, but must depend on his catching him ;— 
here is the greatest trust, the greatest self-denial that can 
be. Thus the heart throws itself out of all possibilities, 
and submits to the free grace of God in Christ; and this 
is done in believing. 






CAL A MY. 157 


CALAMY (EDMUND). 

BORN 1600—DIED 1666. 

1. Miserable is that man whose heart is too hard to 
pray. 

2. Strive to be good in all concerns ; to be good sub¬ 
jects, good governors, good dealers, good husbands, good 
masters, and good neighbours : so will God love you and 
bless you, and the rest respect you. 

3. If thou risest from a low estate to a great one, it is 
but like stepping from a boat or barge into a ship ; thy 
dangers continue, for thou art still upon the sea. 

4. Make the Lord’s day the market-day for thy soul; 
let the whole day be spent in prayer, repetitions, or medi¬ 
tations; lay aside the affairs of the other part of the week; 
let the sermon thou hast heard be converted into prayer. 
Shall God allow thee six days, and wilt not thou afford 
Him one 1 

5. The sinner is always grinding at the devil’s mill; 
and the devil is no less busy in supplying the hopper, lest 
his mill should stand still. 

6. The first that named God’s name in Scripture was 
the devil, and he likewise confessed our Saviour to be the 
Son of God; however, he was the devil notwithstanding 
that. 

7. Our God is a living God, and loves not dull and 
drowsy saints : we must not only serve Him in this life, 
but we must have life in our service. 












158 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


8. The cap and the knee are but outward ceremonies ; 
but he that avoids iniquity is the best Christian. 

9. In your repentance, remember church-sins, sermon- 
sins, sacrament-sins, lest the Church give you up to Satan 
for your sins. 

ro. For know, God is a guest that requires the upper 
rooms, that is, the head and the heart. 

11. Pray often; for prayer is a shield to the soul, a 
sacrifice to God, and a scourge to Satan. 

12. Let your acquaintance be few and good; cousins, 

\ 

country-men, and school-fellows, are spenders of money 
and time. 

13. If thou hast an estate, and wouldest improve it, be 
charitable to the poor : scattered seeds increase, but those 
that are hoarded die. 





















HALE. 


HALE (SIR MATTHEW). 

BORN 1600—DIED 1675. 

1. If we do but seriously believe the truth of the gospel, 
and the truth of the life to come, the best things of this 
world will seem of small moment; and the worst things 

' this world can inflict will seem but of small moment; and 
the worst things this world can inflict will appear too light 
to provoke us to impatience or discontent. He that hath 
everlasting glory in prospect, will have a mind full of con¬ 
tentment in the darkest condition here. 

2. Our home, our country, is heaven, where there are 
no sorrows, nor fears, nor troubles: this world is the place 
of our travel and pilgrimage, and, at the best, our inn. 

3. In my Father’s house there are mansions, many man¬ 
sions, instead of my inn ; and my Saviour Himself hath 
not disdained to be my harbinger. He is gone before me 
to prepare a place for me. I will therefore content myself 
with the inconveniences of my short journey, for my ac¬ 
commodations will be admirable whenj come to my home, 
that heavenly Jerusalem, which is the place of my rest and 
happiness. 

4. Weigh and consider your words before you speak 
them, and do not talk at random. 

5. I would not have you meddle with any recreations, 
pastimes, or ordinary work of your calling, from Saturday 
night, at eight of the clock, till Monday morning. For, 





















i6o 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


though I am not apt to think that Saturday night is part of 
the Christian Sabbath, yet it is fit then to prepare the 
heart for it. 

6. I have been acquainted somewhat with men and 
books, and have had long experience in learning and in 
the world; there is no book like the Bible for excellence, 
learning, wisdom, and use; and it is want of understanding 
in them that think or speak otherwise. 

7. Be frugal of your time; it is one of the best jewels 
we have. 

8. This is the great art of Christian chemistry, to con¬ 
vert those acts that are natural and civil into acts truly 
religious; whereby the whole course of this life is a service 
to Almighty God, and an uninterrupted state of religion 
which is the best and noblest, and most universal redemp¬ 
tion of His time. 

9. Remember that this is the very elixir, the very hell 
of hell to the damned spirits, that they had once a time 
wherein they might have procured everlasting rest and 
glory; but they foolishly and vainly mis-spent that time 
and season, which is now not to be recovered. 

10. The happiness of mankind is not to be found in 
this life; it is a flower that grows in the garden of eternity, 
and to be expected in its full fruition only in that life 
which is to come. 

















CRISP. 161 


CRISP. 

BORN 1600—DIED 1642. 

1. The iniquities of us all, the Lord hath laid upon 
Christ; they cannot lie upon Christ and upon us too ; if 
they be reckoned to Christ, they are not reckoned to him 
that doth receive Christ. 

2. ‘I spread my skirt over thee;’ mark it, I pray you. 
Not a scanty skirt to cover some of this filth, but a broad 
skirt, a large skirt, a white raiment, as Christ calls it Him¬ 
self. There is such a covering of Christ that He casts 
upon a person to cover his nakedness. 

3. Our sins are so translated to Christ, that God 
reckons Christ the very sinner; nay, God reckons all our 
sins to be His, and makes Him to be sin for us, and we 
are made the righteousness of God in Him. 

4. God neither looks to anything in the creature to win 
Him to shew kindness, nor yet to anything in the creature 
to debar Him; neither righteousness in men persuades 
God to pardon sin, nor unrighteousness in men hinders 
Him from giving this pardon : it is only and simply for 
his own sake that He doth it unto men. 

5. Had not Christ made a full satisfaction to the Father, 
He Himself must have perished under those sins that He 
did bear; but in that He went through the thing, and paid 
the full price, as He carried them away from us, so He 
laid them down from Himself. So that now Christ is 
freed from sin, and we are freed from sin in Him. 


L 


\ 









WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


162 


6. Our standing is not founded upon the subduing of 
our sins, but upon that foundation that never fails, and 
that is Christ Himself. 

7. Christ is He that justifies the ungodly; Christ is He 
that is the peace-maker; our peace depends upon Christ 
alone. Beloved, if you will fetch your peace from any¬ 
thing in the world but Christ, you will fetch it from where 
it is not. 

8. Christ is the fountain of peace and life; and men 
forget that peace is to be had in Christ, when they would 
have peace out of righteousness of their own, out of their 
enlargements or out of their humiliations. These are 
broken cisterns, and what peace is there in them % Is 
there not sinfulness in them 1 and if there be sinfulness in 
them, where, then, is their peace? Sin speaks nothing 
but war to the soul. Let me tell you, beloved, you that 
look for peace from the subduing of your sins, what peace 
can it afford you, in case there be any defects of sub¬ 
duing of your sins ? There can be no peace. 

9. None but Christ! none but Christ! While your own 
acts proclaim nothing but war, Christ alone and His 
blood proclaim nothing but peace. 

10. 1 have not said that God is not offended with the 
sins that believers commit; but God stands not offended 
with the persons of believers for the sins committed by 
them. 

11. The anger of God for sin hath spent itself upon the 
person of Christ; and having so spent itself, there remains 
none of it to light upon the person of a believer. 

12. ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well 












CRISP. 


163 


pleased.’ He cloth not say with whom I am well pleased, 
but in whom I am well pleased, that is, in whom I am 
well pleased with you. 

13. Men are mistaken, who think that the law makes 
them see their own vileness; a gracious sight of our vile¬ 
ness is the work of Christ alone. 

14. Christ is a free way; Christ is a near way; Christ 
is a firm way; there is no need of sinking; Christ is a 
pleasant way; ‘all Thy ways are pleasantness;’ Christ is 
a safe way; there is a continual guard in that way; Christ 
is an easy way to hit; ‘ wayfaring men, though fools, 
shall not err therein;’ Christ is a spacious way; ‘Thou 
hast set my feet in a large room.’ 















164 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


RUTHERFORD (SAMUEL). 

BORN 1600—DIED 1661. 

1. Honour God, and shame the roaring lion. 

2. Faith is exceedingly charitable, and believeth no 
evil of God. 

3. Sigh and long for the dawning of that morning, and 
the breaking of that day of the coming of the Son of Man, 
when the shadows shall flee away. 

4. Persuade yourself the King is coming; read His 
letter sent before Him, ‘Behold, I come quickly.’ Wait 
with the wearied night-watch for the breaking of the 
eastern sky, and think that ye have not a morrow. 

5. Ye may have, for the seeking, three always in your 
company, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

6. Surely it cannot be long till day. Nay, hear Him 
say, Behold I come, my dear Bride; think it not long. I 
shall be at you at once. I hear you, and am coming. 
Amen; even so come, Lord Jesus, come quickly, for the 
prisoners of hope are looking out at the prison windows, 
to see if they can behold the King’s ambassador coming 
with the King’s warrant and the keys. 

7. O thrice fools are we, who, like new-born princes 
weeping in the cradle, know not that there is a kingdom 
before them ! 

8. Our fair morning is at hand; the day-star is near the 
rising, and we are not many miles from home. 








RUTHERFORD. 165 


9. Home ! and stay not! For the sun is fallen low, 
and hides the tops of the mountains, and the shadows are 
stretched out in great length. Linger not by the way. 

10. It is better to weep with Jerusalem in the forenoon, 
than with Babylon after noon, or near the end of the day. 
Our day of laughter and rejoicing is coming. 

11. The day is near the dawning; the sky is riving; 
our Beloved will be on us ere we be aware. 

12. If ye were not strangers here, the dogs of the world 
would not bark at you. 

13. The back of your winter night is broken. Look to 

the East, the day-sky is breaking. Think not that Christ 
loseth time, or lingereth unsuitably. O fair, fair and 
sweet morning ! * 

14. I am come to love a rumbling and raging devil 
best. Seeing we must have a devil to hold the saints 
waking, I wish a cumbersome devil, rather than a secure 
and sleeping one. 

15. I know not a thing worth the buying but heaven. 

16. I want nothing but a further revelation of the beauty 
of the unknown Son of God. 

17. O what owe I to the file, to the hammer, to the 
furnace of my Lord Jesus ! 

18. How many a poor professor’s candle is blown out, 
and never lighted again ! 

19. It is now nigh the Bridegroom’s entering into His 
chamber, let us awake and go in with Him. 

20. My faith hath no bed to sleep upon but Omni¬ 
potency. 





WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


166 


CRADOCK (WALTER.) 

BORN (ABOUT) 1600—DIED 1660. 

1. There are but three ways to fulfil the law: either 
in my own person here; or to suffer for ever in hell; 
or to believe in and receive another that may do it for 
me. 

2. I beseech you stand not trifling, and dallying, and 
whining; going to this preacher saying, What shall I 
do, sir 1 and to that Christian, What course shall I take ? 
as though there were many ways, and you had choice 
of things. What shouldest thou do but study Christ 
thoroughly, and roundly make a work of it, or else thou wilt 
be damned. 

3. This is the misery of most Christians, that they 
mislay their justification. They lay it partly upon their 
faith, and partly upon their holiness. And this is the 
reason that, when a poor soul is tempted to some sin, he 
loseth his faith, his assurance, and his peace of con¬ 
science; because he grounds his saintship and justifica¬ 
tion upon his holiness. 

4. I am a just man only by the righteousness that is in 
Christ; the law is perfectly fulfilled for me by Jesus Christ, 
and not partly by Him and partly by me. 

5. Be not cheated of the Gospel; it is a precious pearl. 

6. Christ crucified, and the outpouring of the Spirit of 
God,—these are the two pillars of our religion. 








CRADOCK. 167 


7. The Gospel is a more simple, plain thing than most 
men in the world conceive. It is a simple story concerning 
Christ crucified. When the apostles preach Christ they 
tell a simple story of a Man born of the Virgin Mary, 
apprehended of the Jews; that He bare the sins of His 
people; that He was put to death; and that He rose again 
for our justification. The simplest people most commonly 
understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ best. 

8. The knowledge of Christ crucified is the height, and 
depth, and breadth, and length, of all knowledge; that is, 
it is all knowledge to know Christ crucified in the simpli¬ 
city of the Gospel. The apostle opposeth not philosophy 
to philosophy, or science to science; but he saith, ‘Ye 
are complete in Christ.’ 

9. It is a more glorious truth than we have judged it 
to be, that poor saints are one with Christ. The Lord 
J esus is anointed, and so are they ; we have the same 
unction with Christ; we have the same name with Christ; 
we have the same offices with Christ; we have the same 
love of God with Christ; we have the same Spirit with 
Christ; and the same kingdom with Christ. The Church 
is the fulness of Jesus Christ. Christ is not properly a 
Christ without His members. We have a share in all 
His actions; we are one with Him in His graces, in His 
life, and death, and resurrection, and ascension. There 
is nothing that Christ is or hath, but we are one with Him 
in it. 

10. You are not justified by your own personal good, 
nor unjustified by your personal evils; you are not one 
jot the more just when you have done all the good you 














i68 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


can, and not one jot the less just for all the weaknesses and 
frailties that a saint can fall into; because your justifica¬ 
tion is built only upon Christ, and upon what He did and 
suffered. My justification is built upon the death of 
Christ and His resurrection; He hath fulfilled the law, 
and He hath paid the debt, and He is out of prison, and 
the Father is satisfied; He is my justification; and, 
believing this, I am happy. 

n. The Son of man hath two days: one which every 
wicked man shall see, when He shall judge the world; 
the other the day of grace, wherein He offereth Himself 
to thee, with life and salvation by His death. 










TRAPP. 169 


TRAPP. 

BORN 1602—DIED 1669. 

1. Truth is the daughter of time ; it will not always lie 
hid. 

2. Crosses con^e thick ;—be patient ! 

3. Let us labour to be like unto angels, ‘ strengthened 
with all might,’ walking about the world as conquerors, 
able to do all things through Christ who strengthened us. 

4. Let no man envy others their better parts or places, 
since they have them on no other condition but to be put 
upon greater temptations, hotter services. If we could 
wish another man’s honour, when we feel the weight of 
his cares, as David once did of Saul’s armour, we should 
be glad to be in our own coat. 

5. We know not what we lose by making haste, and not 
holding up our hands, as Moses did, to the going down of 
the sun. If God have begun to enlarge us, He will in 
due time do it to the full, if we should not be in straits 
sometimes. 

6. David saw the features of his friend Jonathan in 
lame Mephibosheth, and therefore loved him. He for¬ 
gave Nabal at Abigail’s intercession, and was pacified 
towards Absalom at Joab’s. Pharaoh favoured Jacob’s 
house for Joseph’s sake; shall not God do as much more 
for Jesus’ sake? Joseph was well pleased with his 
brethren when they brought Benjamin. Bring but the 







« 

170 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


child Jesus in our arms, as Simeon did, and He cannot 
but smile upon us. Were He never so much displeased 
before, yet, upon the sight of this His well-beloved Son, 
in whom He is well pleased, all shall be calm and quiet 
as the sea was when once Jonah was cast into it. 

7. Endure hardness. Never dream of a delicacy. 
Think not to find God in the gardens of Egypt, whom 
Moses found not but in the burning bush. Many love 
Canaan, but loathe the wilderness; commend the country, 
but look upon the conquest as impossible: would sit in 
the seat of honour with Zebedee’s children, but not drink 
the cup of affliction. 

8. No wearing the crown, but by bearing the cross first. 
Christ Himself was not glorified, till first crucified. 

9. That is one way (affliction) by which the Lord Christ 
doth purge His people, and separate between the son 
whom He loves and the sin which He hates. We may ob¬ 
serve in this the difference between Christ and the tempter. 
Christ hath His fan in His hand, and He fanneth us; the 
devil hath a sieve in his hand, and he sifteth us. Now, a 
fan casteth out the worst, and keepeth in the best; a 
sieve keepeth in the worst, and casteth out the best. So 
Christ and His trials purgeth chaff and corruption out 
of us, and nourisheth and increaseth his graces in us. 
Contrariwise the devil, what evil soever is in us, he 
confirmeth it; what faith or good thing soever, he weak- 
eneth it. 

10. When faith heals the conscience, and grace husheth 
the affections, and composeth all within, what should ail 
such a man not to be perpetually merry. 
















CARYL . 171 


CAR YL. 

. BORN 1602—DIED 1672. 

1. The reason why God is trusted so little, is because 
He is so little known. We say of some men, ‘ They are 
better known than trusted;’ and if we knew some men 
more, we should trust them less : but the truth is, God is 
always trusted as much as he is known; and if we knew 
Him more, we would trust Him more : every discovery of 
God shews somewhat which renders Him more worthy of 
our trust. 

2. How can we believe that God heareth us, when we 
do not hear ourselves ? or that He should be mindful to 

. 1 

grant what we ask, when we do not mind what we are 
asking. 

3. As every sin has the more need of pardon by how 
much the greater it is, so God will have the more glory 
in pardoning it by how much the greater it is. 

4. The saints are described in the present state by this 
periphrasis, ‘ Such as love the appearing of Christ,’ as if 
they loved nothing else. What, then, will Christ be to 
them when He shall appear? They who love Christ, 
whom they have not seen, how much more shall they love 
Christ when they see Him ! 

5. Mercy covereth those iniquities which we confess, 
and those which we conceal shall be discovered by justice. 

6. The heart is the place where Christ and the thoughts 






















172 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


of heaven should lodge. All below heaven should be 
below our hearts. 

7. The Scripture is much in shewing how much God 
makes of holy prayers. 

8. We are never safe but where God sets us, or while 
God holds us in His hand. 

9. He doth not say, the word was a light unto his eyes, 
but a light unto his feet. The word is a light to the eyes: 
that is, it shineth to the understanding ; yet the word is 
sometimes a light unto our feet when it is not a light unto 
our eyes; that is, God will have us to go where we cannot 
see our way. 

to. Our hiding from the wrath of God, is in the love of 
God. 

11. These few days are all the working days that ever 
we shall have. Let this be a spur to diligence and to 
duty. In heaven there is nothing but rest; and in hell, 
though there be no rest, yet there is no labour. In hell 
there is nothing but wages, and in heaven there is nothing 
but reward; our whole work lies in the few days which are 
on this side both. 

12. All the motions of man are aberrations, when he 
moves without or against the counsel of God. 

13. God sleeps not at the prayer of those who are awake 
in prayer. 

14. They who separate from whatsoever is unholy, have 
Him nearest them, who is altogether holy. 


















LEIGH. 


LEIGH (EDWARD). 

BORN 1603—DIED 1671. 

1 . There is but one true, proper, and genuine sense of 
Scripture, viz., the literal or grammatical, whether it arise 
from the words properly taken, or figuratively understood, 
or both. 

2. By Christ’s passion is understood all His humilia¬ 
tion, all the miseries, infirmities, sorrows, torments, both 
in soul and body, to which Christ, from His birth, to the 
hour of His death, was obnoxious for our sakes. 

3. The serpent of brass, being without a sting, signified 
Christ, who was without sin. 

4. The whole gospel concerneth Christ. The doctrine 
of the apostles was a long story concerning Christ, His 
Person, and the end of His coming. 

5. Christ performeth expiation by the offering of His 
own self once for all to the Bather; as in all the sufferings 
of His life, so in the last and worst of all, in the garden 
and on the tree. 

6. Christ rules in heaven by His power, in the church 
by His grace, in hell by His justice. 

7. Adam’s disobedience is universal, not in power alone, 
but in act too; it maketh all sinners. The obedience of 
Christ hath a potential uni versality, and is sufficient to make 
all righteous ; but actually it justifies the faithful only. 

8. The burnt-offering was for all sins in general, a sacri- 






174 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


fice all burnt to ashes, except the skin and entrails. Here 
a goat as well as a sheep might be offered. Now, a goat 
is, by Christ, used as an emblem of a wicked man, to shew 
both that Christ was reputed as a sinner for us, though in 
Himself He was righteous, and we in Him accepted as 
righteous, though in ourselves sinners. The blood was to 
be sprinkled on the altar, to signify that the merit of the 
sufferings all came from the Godhead of Christ, and from 
thence is all the acceptation of our services. 

9. Christ is risen! why do not I rise with Him from all 
looseness, vanity, and wickedness ? Christ has ascended 
and taken His place in heaven! why do I not cast off all 
earthly, base affections, and lift up my soul, and aspire to 
that high place % 

10. Let us long for His appearance, and thirst after the 
great day when He shall come to judge the quick and 
dead. What good wife would not often long for the 
coming of her absent husband 1 

11. It is the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and 
accepted for us, by which we are judged righteous. There 
is no appearing before God without the righteousness of 
Christ. We are sinners by the imputation of Adam’s sin, 
and we are righteous by the imputation of Christ’s right¬ 
eousness. 

12. We are bound to love and desire the last coming of 
Christ, which we cannot do until we are certified of His 
love. We are bound to rejoice in God, and that always, 
even in tribulation ; which no understanding can con¬ 
ceive to be possible, unless the soul be assured of life 
eternal. 













BROWNE. 


175 


BROWNE (SIR THOMAS). 

BORN 1605—DIED 1682. 

1. ’Tis too late to be ambitious. The great mutations 

of the world are acted, or time may be too short for our 
designs. t 

2. To be nameless in worthy deeds exceeds an infamous 
history. The Canaanitish woman lives more happily with¬ 
out a name than Herodias with one. And who would not 
rather have been the penitent thief than Pilate j 

3. Many that feared to die shall groan that they can die 
but once : the dismal state is the second and living death, 
when life puts despair on the damned; when men shall 
wish the coverings of the mountains, not of monuments, 
and annihilations shall be courted. 

4. Many would have thought it an happiness to have 
had their lot of life in some notable conjunctures of ages 
past; but the uncertainty of future times hath tempted 
few to make a part in ages to come. And surely he that 
hath taken the true altitude of things, and rightly calcu¬ 
lated the degenerate state of this age, is not likely to envy 
those that shall live in the next; much less three or four 
hundred years hence, when no man can comfortably 
imagine what face the world will carry; and, therefore, 
every age makes a step unto the end of all things: 
and the Scripture affords so hard a character of the last 
times, quiet minds will be content with their generations, 







176 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 

and rather bless ages past, than be ambitious of those 
to come. 

5. Fear not to be undone by mercy; for, since he who 
hath pity on the poor lendeth unto the Almighty Revvarder, 
charity becomes pious usury, Christian liberality the most 
thriving industry. He who thus casts his bread upon the 
waters shall surely find it again; for though it falleth to 
the bottom, it sinks but like the axe of the prophet, to rise 
again unto him. 

6. Trust not to the omnipotency of gold, and say not 
unto it, Thou art my confidence. A slave unto mammon 
makes no servant unto God. 

7. Moses broke the tables without breaking of the law; 
but where charity is broken, the law itself is shattered; 
which cannot be whole without love, which is the fulfilling 
of it. 

8. Measure not thyself by thy morning shadow, but by 
the extent of thy grave. 

9. When God forsakes us, Satan also leaves us ; for 
such offenders he looks upon as sure and sealed up, and 
his temptations then needless unto them. 

10. There is but One who died salvifically (to procure 
salvation) for us, and able to say unto death, Hitherto 
shalt thou go, and no farther; only one enlivening death, 
which makes gardens of graves, and that which was sown 
in corruption to arise and flourish in glory; when death 
itself shall die, and living shall have no period; when life, 
not death, shall be the wages of sin; when the second 
death shall prove a miserable life, and destruction shall 
be courted. 












MIL TON. 


MIL TON. 

BORN 1608—DIED 1674. 

1. Pomp and ostentation of reading is admired among 
the vulgar; but, doubtless, in matters of religion, he is 
learnedest who is plainest. 

2. Who is there that measures wisdom by simplicity, 
strength by suffering, dignity by lowliness % Who is there 
that counts it first to be last, something to be nothing, 
and reckons himself of great command in that he is a 
servant ? 

3. It had been a small mastery for Him to have drawn 
out His legions into array, and flanked them with His 
thunder; therefore He sent foolishness to confute wisdom, 
weakness to bind strength, despisedness to vanquish pride; 
and this is the great mystery of the gospel, made good in 
Christ Himself, who, as He testifies, came not to be 
ministered to, but to minister; and must be fulfilled in all 
His ministers till His second coming. 

4. Come, O Thou that hast the seven stars in Thy right 
hand, appoint Thy chosen priests, according to their orders 
and courses of old, to minister before Thee, and duly to 
press and pour out the consecrated oil into Thy holy and 
ever-burning lamps. 

5. Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue, 
freely according to conscience, above all liberties. 

6. We boast our light; but if we look not wisely on the 


M 
















178 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


sun itself, it smites us into darkness. The light which we 
have gained was given us, not to be ever staring on, but 
by it to discover onward things more remote from our 
knowledge. 

7. Many a man lives a burden to the earth; but a 
good book is the precious life-blood of a master-spirit, 
embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond 
life. 

8. Revolutions of ages do not often recover the loss of 
a rejected truth, for the want of which whole nations fare 
the worse. 

9. We reverence the martyrs, but rely only upon the 
Scriptures. 

10. Let us not dally with God when He offers us 
a full blessing, to take as much of it as we think 
will serve our ends, and turn Him back the rest upon 
His hands, lest in His anger He snatch all from us 
again. 

11. The very essence of truth is plainness and bright¬ 
ness ; the darkness and crookedness are our own. 

12. Right truly it may be said that Antichrist is Mam¬ 
mon’s son. 

13. England and Scotland, dearest brothers both in 
nature and in Christ. 

14. This most mild, though withal dreadful and inviol¬ 
able prerogative of Christ’s diadem . . . seeks not to 
bereave or destroy the body, but seeks to save the soul 
by humbling the body; not by imprisonment or pecuniary 
mulct, much less by stripes, or bonds, or disinheritances ; 
but, by fatherly admonishment and Christian rebuke, to 













MILTON. 


179 


cast it into godly sorrow, whose end is joy and ingenuous 
bashfulness to sin. 

15. Did God take such delight in measuring out the 
pillars, arches, and doors of a material temple % Was He 
so punctual and circumspect in lavers, altars, and sacri¬ 
fices, soon after to be abrogated 1 Should not He rather 
now, by His own prescribed discipline, have cast His line 
and level upon the soul of man, which is His rational 
temple, and, by the divine square and compass thereof, 
form and regenerate in us the lovely shapes of virtues and 
graces, the sooner to edify and accomplish that immortal 
stature of Christ’s body, which is His church, in all her 
glorious lineaments and proportions. 















iSo WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


FISHER (EDWARD)* 

BORN (ABOUT) 1610. 

1. The very truth is, our father Adam, falling from God, 
did, by his fall, dash him and us all in pieces, that there 
was no whole part left either in him or us. 

2. The law of faith is as much as to say the covenant of 
grace , or the gospel, which signifieth good, merry, glad, and 
joyful tidings, that God before all time purposed, and in 
time promised, and in the fulness of time performed, the 
sending of His Son Jesus Christ into the world to help 
and deliver fallen mankind. 

3. It is as easy for faith to apprehend righteousness to 
come, as it is to apprehend righteousness that is past. 
Wherefore, as Christ’s birth, obedience, and death were, 
in the Old Testament, as effectual to save sinners as now 
they are; so all the faithful forefathers did partake of the 
same grace with us, by believing in the same Jesus Christ; 
and so were justified by His righteousness. 

4. The covenant of grace terminates only on Christ and 
His righteousness. God will have none to have a hand 
in the justification and salvation of a sinner but Christ 
only. Christ will either be a whole Saviour or no Saviour; 
He will either save you alone, or not save you at all. 


* These Gems are from Fisher’s well-known work, the ‘ Marrow of 
Modern Divinity,’ published in 1645. * 













FISHER. 181 


5. Whosoever goeth about to please God with works 
going before faith, goeth about to please God with sin. 

6. The obedience of Christ being imputed unto believers 
by God, for their righteousness, it doth put them into the 
same estate and case, touching righteousness unto life, as 
if they had perfectly performed the perfect obedience of 
the covenant of works. 

7. I beseech you, be persuaded that here you are to work 
nothing, here you are to do nothing, here you are to ren¬ 
der nothing to God; but only to receive the treasure, 
which is Jesus Christ, and apprehend Him in your heart 
by faith, although you be never so great a sinner; so shall 
you obtain forgiveness of sins, righteousness, and eternal 
happiness, not as an agent, but as a patient ,% not by doing, 
but by receiving. 

8. God the Father, as He is in His Son Jesus Christ, 
moved with nothing but His free love to mankind lost, 
hath made a deed of gift and grant unto them all, that 
whosoever of them all shall believe in this His Son, shall 
not perish, but have eternal life. And hence it was that 
Jesus Christ Himself said unto His disciples, Preach the 
gospel to every creature under heaven; that is, Go and 
tell every man that there is good news for him. 

9. If you would be acceptable to God, and be made 
His dear child, then by faith cleave unto His beloved 
Son Christ, and hang about His neck, yea, and creep 
into His bosom; so shall the love and favour of God 
be as deeply insinuated into you as it is into Christ 
Himself. 

10. I know no other God, neither will I know any other 




WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


182 


God, besides this God that came down from heaven, and 
clothed Himself with my flesh. 

11. The greater any man’s sins are, either in number or 
nature, the more haste he should make to come to Christ. 

12. Godly humiliation proceeds from the love of God, 
their good Father, and so from hatred of that sin which 
hath displeased Him; and this cannot be without faith. 
Sorrow and grief for displeasing God argue the love of 
God; and it is impossible we should ever love God, till, 
by faith, we know ourselves loved of God. Although 
repentance goes not before, as an antecedent of faith, yet 
it follows, as a consequent. For, when a man believes the 
love of God to him in Christ, then he loves God, because 
He loved him first; and that love constrains him to 
humble himself at the Lord’s footstool. 

13. If you, or any man, shall exempt yourselves from 
being under the law of the ten commandments, as they 
are the law of Christ, I tell you truly, it is a shrewd sign 
you are not yet in Christ. 

14. I would have you close with Christ in the promise, 
without making any question whether you are in the faith 
or no; for there is an assurance which ariseth from the 
exercise of faith by a direct act; and that is when a man, 
by faith, lays hold on Christ, and concludes assurance 
from thence. 
















LOCKYER. 183 


LOCK YER. 

BORN 1612—DIED 1684. 

1. Christians, you are honoured to be baptized with 
Christ’s baptism; to pledge your dear Saviour in His own 
cup. Count not, call not honour misery. The wine in 
your cup is red indeed, but without dregs to you. Christ’s 
drinking first hath sweetened it well to saints. 

2. Hearts dead and unstirred when Christ speaks, have 
certainly stopped their ears against the charmer. This 
soul is prisoner to a perverse will; there is no damnable 
prison but this; he is resolved that nothing shall sway 
that is holy; that his heart shall rule truth, and not truth 
his heart; which will damn a man if he had a thousand 
souls. This man hath the plague in his heart, and hath 
shut up himself, that none may come at him ; no, not the 
King of glory, not words of glory. Write, 1 Lord, have 
mercy on this man’s door,’ upon his forehead, for he will 
die in his sin; all the world cannot save him. Whom 
truth cannot stir, nothing can; whom glorious words of 
truth cannot stir, nothing shall; the man is stretched out 
for dead ; I am now ringing his knell. Does any dead 
soul hear me ? 

3. At what height you sin, sinners, at that height you 
will perish. 

4. A hypocrite has least of heaven of any man, and most 
of hell. 






184 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


5. A man climbs up to heights in grace by hanging much 
upon God. 

6. Some duties have their termination, joy hath none; 
’tis an alway work, an everlasting duty. ’Tis not to cease 
when goods cease, when honours cease; no, ’tis not to 
cease when all contents cease; ’tis to last summer, winter, 
spring, fall, day, and night. Joy is the nightingale grace 
in the soul; it is to sing all the night long, let the night 
be never so long, never so dark ; ‘ Rejoice evermore.’ 

7. The great heaven at a distance makes a little heaven 
at present. 

8. A little guilt is heavier than a great deal of misery; 
than all the afflictions of this world. 

9. How tender is God of the felicity of man ! He does 
much to destroy his sin, but nothing to destroy his joy. 

10. The worst that God does to a Christian is to make 
him a heaven, and to increase it. 

11. God is a vexing God to the heart of an earthly man; 
he wakes, sleeps, eats, talks, laughs, with a sad, restless 
soul. He sleeps, but his conscience wakes; he rises, but 
his heart is down; his soul is in a deep consumption, far 
gone from God. 

12. I see love hath a long arm and a full hand : mercy 
to thousands ; and from generation to generation. 

13. All earthly cisterns are cracked; what folly is it to 
seek for all in that which will drop out all! All is lost 
when the world is made all; death is in the pot when you 
are taken with the broth; the birthright is gone when 
affection is so strong to the pottage. Ah, wretch ! thou 
hast lost thy soul to gain the world ! 





LOCK YER. 


185 


14. Bestow love upon Christ when you will, He will 
meet you; or what love you will, he will out-love you. 
Promise to yourselves what you will in Christ, you shall 
find it, and more; make a God of Christ, you shall find 
Him so ; make Him all, and you shall find him all, more 
than all the world beside. 

15. No evil carries the heart so totally from God as evil 
joy. A merry devil jostles Christ out of all. 

16. Thankfulness is a making everything that is good, 
cry, Abba, Father, to God. 

17. God makes His glory pass by us, and we let it pass. 

18. Will hell ever give up her dead to heaven ? 

19. The world gives no certificate to saints ; and saints 
give no certificate to the world : he that gets a certificate 
from both—Lord ! what is he ? A saint or a worldling % 

20. Electing love hath a still, sweet, calling voice. This 
is the way, saith love ; there is no way in comparison with 
this, saith the beloved. 














186 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


PEARSON (BISHOP). 

BORN 1612—DIED 1686. 

1. There is one degree of sonship founded on creation, 
and that is the lowest, as belonging unto all, both good 
and bad; another degree above that there is, grounded 
upon regeneration or adoption, belonging only to the truly 
faithful in this life; and a third, above the rest, founded on 
the resurrection or collation of the eternal inheritance and 
the similitude of God, appertaining to the saints alone in 
the world to come. 

2. Is it not this Jesus in whom the love of God is de¬ 
monstrated to us, and that in so high a degree as is not 
expressible by the pen of man ? Is it not He who shewed 
His own love to us far beyond all possibility of parallel ? 
Shall thus the Father shew His love to the Son ? Shall 
thus the Son shew His love in Himself? And shall we 
no way study a requital; or is there any proper return of 
love but love ? 

3. Jesus, as the first-begotten of God, was by right a 
priest, and being anointed unto that office, performed 
eveiy function, by way of oblation, intercession, and bene¬ 
diction. 

4. Our belief in Christ as the eternal Son of God is 
necessary to raise us unto a thankful acknowledgment of 
the infinite love of God, in the sending of His only- 
begotten Son into the world to die for sinners. 







PEARSON ; 


187 


5. To derogate any way from the person and nature of 
our Saviour before He suffered, is so far to undervalue the 
love of God, and consequently to come short of that 
acknowledgment and thanksgiving which is due unto Him 
for it. If the sending of Christ into the world were the 
highest act of the love of God which could be expressed; 
if we be obliged unto a return of thankfulness of some way 
correspondent to such infinite love; if such a return can 
never be made without a true sense of that infinity, and a 
sense of that infinity of love cannot consist without an 
apprehension of an infinite dignity of nature in the person 
sent; then it is absolutely necessary to believe that Christ 
is so the only-begotten of the Father, as to be the same 
substance with Him, of glory equal, of majesty co-eternal. 

6. Our High Priest is gone up unto the Holy of holies 
not made with hands, there to make an atonement for us; 
therefore, as the people of Israel stood without the taber¬ 
nacle, expecting the return of Aaron, so must we look 
unto the heavens, and expect Christ from thence. 

7. If Christ were not life, the dead could never live; if 
He were not resurrection, they could never rise. 

8. This belief (in eternal punishment) is necessary to 
teach us to make a fit estimate of the price of Christ’s 
blood, to value sufficiently the work of our redemption, 
to acknowledge and admire the love of God to us in Christ. 











188 • WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


LEIGHTON. 

BORN 1613—DIED 1684. 

1. The stones appointed for the glorious temple above, 
are hewn, and polished, and prepared for it here, as the 
stones were wrought and prepared in the mountains for 
building the temple at Jerusalem. 

2. All the peace and favour of the world cannot calm 
a troubled heart; but where this peace is which Christ 
gives, all the trouble and disquiet of the world cannot 
disturb it. 

3. All outward distress, to a mind at peace, is but as 
the rattling of the hail upon the tiles to him that sits 
within at a sumptuous feast. 

4. What are our lame praises in comparison of His love 1 
Nothing, and less than nothing; but love will stammer 
rather than be dumb. 

5. Faith looks above all, both what the soul hath and 
what it wants; and answers all fears with this almighty 
power upon which it rests. 

6. Oh, if we considered that solemn day, how light 
should we set by the opinions of men, and all hardships 
that can befall us! How easily should we digest dispraise 
and dishonour here, provided we be found in Him, and 
so partakers of praise, and glory, and honour, in that day 
of His appearing. 

7. It is the eye of the new creature, that quick-sighted 






LEIGHTON. 189 


eye, which pierces all the visible heavens, and sees above 
them,—which looks to the things which are not seen. 

8. The more the soul looks upon Christ, the more it 
loves; and still, the more it loves, the more it delights to 
look upon Him. 

9. Believe, and you shall love; believe much, and you 
shall love much. 

10. The childish world is hunting shadows, gaping and 
hoping after they know not what. But the believer can 
say, I know whom I have trusted. 

11. To ask a believer, How know you the Scripture to 
be divine? is the same as to ask him, How know you 
light to be light ? 

12. The firmest thing in this inferior world, is a believ¬ 
ing soul. 

13. That nature which He stooped below them to take 
on, He hath carried up and raised above them ; the very 
earth, the flesh of man, being exalted, in His person, 
above all those heavenly spirits, who are of so excellent a 
nature, and from the beginning of the world have been 
clothed with such transcendent glory. A parcel of clay is 
made so bright, and set so high, as to outshine those bright 
flaming spirits, those stars of the morning; that flesh being 
united to the Fountain of light, the blessed Deity, in the 
person of the Son. 

14. A sad bed is that which the most have to go to, 
after they have wearied themselves all the day, all their 
life, in a chase of vanity ! 

15. The conscience must be washed in blood ere it can 
be clean ; all our pains will not cleanse it; floods of tears 






WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


will not do it; it is blood, blood alone, that can purge the 
conscience from dead works. 

16. I know of no heart’s ease but to believe ; to honour 
thy God, in resting on His word. 

17. Faith hath this privilege, never to be ashamed; it 
takes sanctuary in God, and sits and sings under the 
shadow of His wings. 

18. Thou art never bidden believe in thyself; no, that 
is countermanded as faith’s great enemy. 

19. He is wise that hath learned to speak little with 
others, and much with himself and with God. 

20. What are the breasts of most of us, but so many 
nests of foolish hopes and fears intermixed, which enter¬ 
tain us day and night, and steal away our precious hours 
from us, that might be laid out so gainfully upon the wise 
and sweet hopes of eternity, and upon the blessed and 
assured hope of the coming of our beloved Saviour. 








TAYLOR. 191 


TAYLOR (JEREMY). 

BORN 1613—DIED 1667. 

1. Faith is the root of all blessings. Believe, and you 
shall be saved. Believe, and you must needs be sancti¬ 
fied. Believe, and you cannot choose but be comforted. 

2. Throw all the miserable comforts of the world out of 
doors for rubbish, and cast yourself upon the strength of 
God, and upon that alone. 

3. Deep disputings will yield but shallow comforts. 

4. Mark the rain that falls from above ; the same shower 
that drops out of one cloud increaseth sundry plants in a 
garden, and severally, according to the condition of every 
plant. In one stalk it makes a rose ; in another a violet; 
diverse in a third; and sweet in all. So the Spirit works 
its multifarious effects in several complexions, and all ac¬ 
cording to the increase of God. 

5. Sweet Saviour! should any of Thy servants love 
Thee better than I ? Should any of Thy disciples be 
more obedient than I? No, Lord ; for none of Thine are 
so much indebted to Thy passion, because none had so 
many sins to be forgiven. How amiable are Thy com¬ 
mandments, O Lord of hosts ! My soul thirsteth to be 
the nearest of them that stand before the living God. 
Lord, let me love Thee as Peter did ; Lord, let me love 
Thee more than these. 

6. Every furrow in the book of Psalms is sown with 







WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


such seeds (cxxxv. 3; cxlvii. 1). I know nothing more 
constant to expel the sadness of the world, than to sound 
out the praises of God as with a trumpet; and when the 
heart is cast down, this will make it rebound from earth 
to heaven. 

7. God is not extreme to mark what is done amiss in 
every convulsion of faith, as Psalm xxxi. 22. 

8. I give God thanks, that every blessing of worldly 
comfort that I prayed for, the longer I was kept from it; 
and the more I prayed for it, I found it greater in the 
end. 

9. What! Art thou, Moses, more merciful than God 
(Ps. cvi. 23) ? Art thou more merciful to the people than 
He who saves us from all evil? No. Thou art infinitely 
short of the loving-kindness of the Lord ; but He puts 
thy charity to the proof, to see what vehement entreaties 
thou wouldest make for the deliverance of the nation. 

10. What comfortable orators (pleaders) are the mighty 
saints of God ! What a safeguard it is to us all that they 
live among us. 

11. The worthy servants of the Lord may prevail much 
one by one ; others of the common rank had need to 
meet by hundreds and by thousands in great congrega¬ 
tions, that every single man’s prayer may be a drop in a 
shower; that while every man prays for all, all may pray 
for every man. 

12. All that have a care to walk with God, fill their 
vessels more largely as soon as they rise, before they 
begin the work of the day, and before they lie down again 
at night; which is to observe what the Lord appointed in 






















TAYLOR. 


193 


the Levitical ministry—a morning and an evening lamb 
to lay upon the altar. So with them that are not stark 
irreligious; prayer is the key to open the day, and the 
bolt to shut in the night. But as the skies drop the early 
dew and the evening dew upon the grass, yet it would not 
spring and grow green by that constant and double falling 
of the dew, unless some great showers at certain seasons 
did supply the rest; so the customary devotion of prayer 
twice a-day is the falling of the early and latter dew; but 
if you will increase and flourish in the works of grace, 
empty the great clouds sometimes, and let them fall in a 
full shower of prayer; choose out the seasons in your own 
discretion, when prayer shall overflow, like Jordan in the 
time of harvest. 













WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


BAXTER. 

BORN 1615—DIED 1691. 

1. None of thy enemies are asleep; and yet wilt thou 
sleep in the thickest of thy foes ? Is the battle a sleeping 
time, or the race a sleeping time, when heaven or hell 
must be the end ? 

2. It is not a forgotten Christ that comforteth the soul, 
but a Christ believed in and used to that end ? 

3. He knoweth the meaning of the Spirit’s groan. 

4. You come not to the school of Christ to be idle. 
Knowledge droppeth not into the dreamer’s mouth. 

5. None so successfully serveth Satan as a false or 
bribed minister of Christ. 

6. To love a small sin is a great sin. 

7. Unworded groans come oft from the Spirit of God, 
and God understandeth and accepteth them. 

8. There is more of the success of prayer to be believed 
than to be felt. If God hath promised to hear, He doth 
hear, and we must believe it whether we feel it or not. 

9. A religion that tendeth but to grief, hath too much in 
it of the malice of the enemy to be of God. No tears are 
desirable but those that tend to clear the eyes from the 
filth of sin, that they may see better the loveliness of God. 

10. Come home, my soul, my wandering, tired, grieved 
soul! Love where thy love shall not be lost. Love Him 
that will not reject thee, nor deceive thee, nor requite thee 


















BAXTER. 


with injuries as the world doth. Despair not of entertain¬ 
ment though the world deny it thee. The peaceable 
region is above. Retire to the harbour if thou wouldest 
be free from storms. God will receive thee when the 
world doth cast thee off. 

n. Many would be damned if God did not keep them 
from digesting their own errors. 

12. Oh what heads, what hearts, have all those men 
who, standing on the verge of an endless world, can think 
they have any time to spare. 

13. The devil tempteth many millions of souls with the 
offers of the kingdom of heaven itself. 

14. We owe greater love to angels than to men, because 
they are better, nearer God, liker to Him, and more de¬ 
monstrate His glory. 

15. How vain is the judgment of man ! How contrary 
is it frequently to the truth ! With what caution must his¬ 
tory be read ! And oh how desirable is the great day of 
God, when all human censure shall be justly censured ! 

16. I have marvelled at some wordy preachers. With 
how little matter they can handsomely fill up an hour ! 

17. He is not sincere who desireth not to be perfect. 

18. To repent is the best way to peace. I am elected 
to repent. 

19. A swearer warranteth you to suspect him for a liar. 

20. Is this a world for a holy soul to be in love with 1 

21. Oh hasten Thy appearance, and come with Thy 
holy, glorious angels ! Hast thou not said, Behold, I 
come quickly ? Even so, come Lord ! and let the great 
marriage-day of the Lamb make haste ! 






196 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


O WEN. 

BORN 1616—DIED 1683. 

1. The more eminent in any season are the real effusions 
of the Holy Spirit upon ministers of the gospel and 
disciples of Christ, the more diligence and watchfulness 
against delusions are necessary. For, on such opportuni¬ 
ties it is, when the use and reputation of spiritual gifts 
is eminent, that Satan doth lay hold to intrude his own 
deceitful suggestions. 

2. There is nothing excellent among men, whether it 
be absolutely extraordinary, or whether it consist in an 
eminent improvement of those principles and abilities, but 
it is ascribed to the Holy Spirit of God as the immediate 
operator and efficient cause. Of old He was all; now some 
would have him nothing. 

3. The chiefest privilege of the church of old was but 
to hear tidings of the things which we enjoy. 

4. It was not His merely enduring the penalty of the 
law that was the means of our deliverance, but the volun¬ 
tarily giving Himself up to be a sacrifice in those holy acts 
of obedience, was that upon which, in an especial manner, 
God was reconciled to us. 

5. Great opportunities for service neglected, and great 
gifts not improved, are oftentimes the occasion of plung¬ 
ing the soul into great depths. 

6. It is easy to follow a multitude to do evil. Would 
















OWEN. 197 


any one have thought it possible that such and such 
professors, in our days, should have fallen into ways of 
self, of flesh, and of the world? To play at cards, 
dice, revel, dance ? To neglect family and closet duties % 
To be proud, haughty, ambitious, worldly, covetous, 
oppressive % Or that they should be turned away after 
foolish, vain, ridiculous opinions, deserting the gospel 
of Christ. 

7. Do not deceive yourselves; it is not an indifferent 
thing whether you will come to Christ upon his invita¬ 
tions or not; a thing which you may put off from one 
occasion into another. Your present refusal of it is as 
high an act of enmity against God as your nature is 
capable of. 

8. God made not man to be at perpetual quarrel with 
Him, nor to fill the world with tokens of His displeasure 
because of sin. This men saw of old by the light of 
nature; but what it was that opened the floodgates unto 
all that evil then, they could not tell. The springs of it 
indeed they searched after : but with more vanity and dis¬ 
appointment than they who sought for the sources of the 
Nile. 

9. But although the persons are designed and allowed 
unto Him from eternity, who were to receive this grace at 
His hands, yet as to the manner and the circumstances of 
His dispensing and communicating these blessings, they 
are wholly committed unto His sovereign will and wisdom. 
Hence, some He calls at one time, some at another; 
some in the morning that they may glorify grace in work¬ 
ing all the day ; some in the evening of their lives, that 








198 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


they may exalt pardoning mercy to eternity. On some 
He bestows much grace, that He may render them useful 
in the strength of it; on others less, that He may keep 
them humble, in a sense of their wants. Some He makes 
rich in light, others in love; some in faith, and others in 
patience, that they may all peculiarly praise Him, and set out 
the fulness of His stores. And hereby He glorifies every 
grace of His Spirit by making it shine eminently in one or 
other; as faith in Abraham and Peter, love in David and 
John, patience in Job; and He renders His subjects 
useful to one another, in that they have opportunities, 
upon the defects and fulness of each other, to exercise all 
their graces. And so He renders His whole mystical body 
comely and uniform, keeping every member in humility 
and dependence, while it sees its own wants in some graces 
that others excel in; and so the joints and bands having 
nourishment ministered and knit together, increaseth with 
the increase of God. 

10. Oh in how many vanities doth vain man place his 
glory. 

11. In all ages, men coming out of great trials have been 
most useful to others; for God doth not exercise any of 
His own but with some special view to His own glory. 







BROOKS. 


BROOKS (THOMAS). 

BORN (ABOUT) 1620—DIED 1680. 

1. God puts a great deal of honour upon suffering saints. 
To suffer for Christ is honourable ; God will not put this 
honour upon every one, He puts this honour only upon 
those that are vessels of honour; by grace God makes men 
vessels of silver and vessels of gold, and then casts them 
into the fire to melt and suffer for His name, and a higher 
glory He cannot put upon them on this side glory. 

2. A believer’s dying day is his resting day : it is a rest¬ 
ing day from sin, sorrow, afflictions, temptations, deser¬ 
tions, dissensions, vexations, oppositions, and persecutions. 
This world was never made to be the saints’ rest: arise, 
for this is not your resting-place; they are like Noah’s 
dove, they cannot rest but in the Ark. 

3. The very suffering condition of the people of God is, 
at the present, a glorious condition, for the Spirit of Glory 
rests upon them. 

4. Suffering for Christ and religion, is the most gainful 
kind of merchandise. Christ is a noble, a liberal pay¬ 
master, and no small things can fall from so great a hand 
as His is. 

5. God’s covenant is grounded upon God’s free grace ; 
and, therefore, in recompensing their obedience, God hath 
a respect to His own mercy and not to their merits. God 
is a God of mercy, and His covenant with His people is a 
covenant of mercy. 






WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


6. Christ, for our sakes, hath taken all our spiritual 
maladies upon Him, to make satisfaction for them, and, 
as our Surety, to pay the debt that we had run into. 

7. It pleased our Lord Jesus Christ to put Himself 
under our guilt; and, therefore, it pleased the Father to 
wound Him, bruise Him, and chastise Him. 

8. The singular pleasure that God the Father takes in 
the work of our redemption, is a wonderful demonstration 
of His love and affection to us. 

9. Christ takes a singular pleasure in the work of our 
redemption, and doth herein, as it were, refresh Himself 
with the fruits of His own labour. 

10. All the temporal, spiritual, and eternal deliverances 
which we enjoy, swim to us through the blood of that 
covenant, that has passed between the Father and the Son. 

11. If Christians are not very much upon their watch, 
their very callings and offices may prove a very great snare 
to their souls. 

12. Joy in the Holy Ghost will make its nest nowhere, 
but in a holy soul. A man will have no more comfort 
from God, than he makes conscience of sinning against 
God. A conscience good in point of integrity, will be 
good also in point of tranquillity. 

13. If God be so faithful and just to forgive us all our 
sins, we must be so faithful and just as to turn from all 
our sins. 

14. Surely He, who hath spoken so much for His saints, 
whilst He was on earth, and who hath continually inter¬ 
ceded for them since He went to heaven, wont speak any¬ 
thing against them in the great day. 






WILCOX. 


201 


WILCOX (THOMAS). 

BORN 1622—DIED 1687. 

1. Apply what thou wilt besides the blood of Christ, 
it will poison the sore. Thou wilt find that sin was never 
mortified truly, if thou hast not seen Christ bleeding 
for thee upon the cross. Nothing can kill it but a 
sight of Christ’s righteousness. Nature can afford no 
balsam fit for soul-cure. Healing from duty, and not 
from Christ, is the most desperate disease. Poor ragged 
nature, with all its highest improvements, can never spin 
a garment fine enough (without spot) to cover the soul’s 
nakedness. Nothing can do it but Christ’s perfect right¬ 
eousness. 

2. When thou believest, and comest to Christ, thou 
must leave behind thee thine own righteousness,—all 
thy holiness, sanctification, duties, tears, humblings, &c., 
—and bring nothing but thy sins, thy wants, and miseries, 
else Christ is not fit for thee, nor thou for Christ. Christ 
will be a perfect Redeemer and Mediator, and thou 
must be an undone sinner, or Christ and thou will never 
agree. It is the hardest thing in the world to take 
Christ alone for righteousness; that is, to acknowledge 
Him Christ. 

3. Thou thinkest it easy to believe. Was thy faith 
ever tried with an hour of temptation, and a thorough 
sight of sin? Was it ever put to resist Satan, and to 







WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


feel the wrath of God lying upon thy conscience % When 
thou wert apprehensive of hell and the grave, then did 
God shew thee Christ, a ransom, a righteousness, &c. 
Then couldst thou say, ‘Oh, I see grace enough in 
Christ!’ If so, thou mayest say that which is the greatest 
word in the world—I believe. Untried faith is uncertain 
faith. 

4. To accept Christ’s righteousness alone, His blood 
alone for salvation, is the sum of the Gospel. When the 
soul, in all duties and distresses, can say, ‘Nothing but 
Christ; Christ alone for righteousness, justification, sanc¬ 
tification, redemption (1 Cor. i. 30); not humblings, not 
duties, not gracesthen the soul has got above the reach 
of the billows. 

5. When a sense of guilt is raised up, take heed of 
getting it allayed any way but by Christ’s blood ; all other 
ways tend to harden the conscience. Make Christ thy 
peace (Eph. ii. 14), not thy duties, thy tears, &c. Thou 
mayest oppose Christ by duties as well as by sins. Look 
at Christ, and then do as much as thou wilt. 

6. In the highest commands consider Christ, not as 
an exactor to require, but as a debtor, an undertaker, to 
work in thee and for thee. If thou hast looked at thy 
resolutions, endeavours, workings, duties, qualifications, 
more than at the merits of Christ, it will cost thee dear. 

7. Nature would do anything to be saved, rather than 
go to Christ, or close with Christ, and owe all to Him. 

8. Thou sayest, I cannot believe, I cannot repent. 
But Christ is exalted a Prince and a Saviour, to give re¬ 
pentance and remission of sins (Acts v. 31). Hast 








IVILCOX. 


203 


thou nought but sin and misery ? Go to Christ with 
all thy impenitency and unbelief, to get faith and 
repentance from Him. This will be very acceptable to 
Him. 

9. Many call Christ Saviour; few know Him to be so. 
To see grace and salvation in Christ, is the greatest sight 
in the world. 

10. A Christless, formal profession is the blackest sight 
next to hell. 

11. Judge not Christ’s love by providences, but by 
promises. 

12. Treasure up manifestations of Christ’s love; they 
make the heart low for Christ, too high for sin. 
















204 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


» 



PA SCAL. 

BORN 1623—DIED 1661. 

t. It were to be wished that the enemies of religion 
would at least learn what it is before they oppose it. 

2. Nothing betrays so much weakness of understanding 
as not to perceive the misery of man without God. Nothing 
is a surer token of extreme baseness of spirit than not to 
wish for the reality of eternal promises. No man is so 
truly a coward as he that acts the brave against heaven. 

3. Under the Jewish economy truth appeared only in 
figure; in heaven it is without veil; in the church it is 
veiled, but discerned by its correspondence to the figure. 
As the figure was first built upon the truth, so the truth is 
now distinguishable by the figure. 

4. When the Scriptures speak of the Messiah as great 
and glorious, it is evident they refer to His judging the 
world, and not to His redeeming it. 

5. How delightful it is to behold with the eye of faith, 
Darius, Cyrus, Alexander, the Romans, Pompey, and 
Herod, all conspiring, without knowing it, to promote the 
glory of the gospel. 

6. He is the true God to us men; that is, to miserable 
and sinful creatures; He is the centre of all and the 
object of all. He who knows not Him knows nothing 
either in the order of the world or in himself. For not 
only do we know nothing of God but by Jesus Christ, but 


1 






















PASCAL. 205 


we know nothing of ourselves also, but by Jesus Christ 
alone. 

7. A little thing comforts us, because a little thing 
afflicts us. 

8. Many err the more dangerously, because they take a 
truth as the foundation of their error. This mistake lies, 
not in the believing a falsehood, but in regarding one 
truth to the exclusion of another. 

9. I see no greater difficulty in believing the resurrection 
of the dead, or the conception of the Virgin, than the 
creation of the world. Is it less easy to reproduce an 
human body than it was to produce it at first 1 

10. The history of the church ought in propriety to be 
called the history of truth. 

11. If our condition were really happy, we should have 
no occasion to divert ourselves from thinking of it. 

12. His sacrifice continued through His life, and was 
completed by His death. 

13. O Lord, open my heart; enter into this rebellious 
place that my sins have possessed. They hold it in sub¬ 
jection ; do Thou enter, as into the strong man’s house; 
but first bind the strong and powerful enemy, who is the 
tyrant over it, and take to Thyself the treasures which are 
there. Lord, take my affections, which the world has 
robbed me of: spoil Thou the world of this treasure ; or 
rather, resume it to Thyself, for to Thee it belongs; it is 
a tribute I owe Thee, for Thine own image is stamped 
upon it. 






206 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


BINNING . 

BORN 1625—DIED 1654. 

1. Let others be wise to their own destruction'; let them 
establish their own imaginations for the word of God, and 
rule of their faith ; hold you fast what you have received, 
and contend earnestly for it; add nothing, and diminish 
nothing. Let this lamp shine till the day dawn, till the 
morning of the resurrection, and walk ye in the light of it, 
and do not kindle any other sparkles, else ye shall lie 
down in the grave in sorrow, and rise in sorrow. 

2. Therefore the gospel opens the door of salvation in 
Christ, the law is behind us with fire and sword, and de¬ 
struction pursuing us; and all for this end, that sinners 
may come to Him and have life. 

3. To believe in Christ is simply this : I, whatsoever I 
be, ungodly, wretched, polluted, desperate, am willing to 
have Jesus Christ for my Saviour. I have no other help 
or hope if it be not in Him. 

4. Now, I know no more effectual way to increase love 
to Jesus Christ than to believe His love. Christ Jesus is 
the author and finisher both of faith and love; and we love 
Him because He first loved us. 

5. Faith in Jesus Christ is the soul's flight into the city 
of refuge. 

6. He that is in earnest about this question, ‘ How 
shall I be saved?’ should not spend the time in reflecting 















BINNING. 


207 


on, and examination of himself, till he find something pro¬ 
mising in himself, but, from discovered sin and misery, 
pass straightway over to the grace and mercy of Christ, 
without any intervening search of something in himself to 
warrant him to come. 

7. My conscience challengeth and writeth bitter things 
against me, yet I have an answer in that blood that 
speaketh better things than Abel’s. 

8. Heaven is a land of peace, and all things are there 
in full age ; here all are in minority, it is but yet night; 
but, when the day shall break up, and the shadows fly 
away, and the Prince of peace shall appear and be revealed, 
He shall bring peace and grace both with Him, and both 
perfect. 

9. Ofttimes we make our liberty and access to God the 
ground of our acceptation ; and, according to the ebbings 
and flowings of our inherent righteousness, so doth the 
faith and confidence of justification ebb and flow. Chris¬ 
tians, this ought not to be; in so doing, you make your 
own righteousness your righteousness before God; for, 
when the want of satisfaction in your duties maketh you 
question your interest so often, is not the satisfaction of 
your minds in such duties made the ground of your plead¬ 
ing interest r i Give you liberty and access, you can believe 
anything; remove it, and you can believe nothing. Cer¬ 
tainly this is a sandy foundation. 













208 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


BA TBS. 

BORN 1625—DIED 1699. 

1. As the whole race of mankind was virtually in Adam’s 
loins, so it was presumed to give virtual consent to what 
he did. When he broke, all suffered shipwreck. He broke 
the first link in the chain whereby mankind was united to 
God, and all the parts necessarily separated from Him. 

2. By assuming our nature, the only gain Christ pur¬ 
chased to Himself was to be made capable of loss for the 
accomplishing of our salvation. 

3. Though the death of Christ was the highest provoca¬ 
tion of God’s displeasure, and brought the greatest guilt 
upon the Jews, yet, in respect of the end, namely, the 
salvation of men, it was the most grateful offering to Him, 

‘ a sacrifice of a sweet-smelling savour.’ 

4. It was excellently said by Pherecides, that God 
transformed Himself into love when He made the world ; 
but with greater reason it is said by the apostle, ‘ God is 
love,’ when He redeemed it. It was love that took our 
nature; it was love that stooped to the form of a servant, 
and led a poor, despised life here below; it was love that 
endured a death neither easy nor honourable, most un¬ 
worthy of the glory of the divine and the innocency of 
the human nature. Love chose to die on the cross, that 
we might live in heaven, rather than to enjoy that blessed¬ 
ness, and leave mankind in misery. 














✓ 


BA TBS. 


5. The love of God is the most powerful persuasive to 
repentance. Real repentance is the consequent of faith, 
and always in proportion to it. The law can never work 
true repentance in a sinner. Despair hardens. 

6. The degrees of wrath shall be in proportion to the 
riches of neglected goodness. The refusing life from Christ 
makes us guilty of His death. And when He shall come 
in His glory, what vengeance will be the portion of those 
who despised the majesty of His person, the mystery of His 
compassions and sufferings ! Those that lived and died in 
the darkness of heathenism shall have a cooler climate in 
hell than those who neglected the great salvation. 

7. The civil law determines that a tree transplanted 
from one soil to another, and taking root there, belongs 
to the owner of that ground, in regard that, receiving 
nourishment from a new earth, it becomes, as it were, 
another tree, though there be the same individual root, the 
same body and the same soul of vegetation, as before. 
Thus the human nature, taken from the common mass of 
mankind, and transplanted by personal union into the 
divine, is to be reckoned as entirely belonging to the 
divine; and the actions proceeding from it are not merely 
human, but are raised above their natural worth, and 
become meritorious. One hour of Christ’s life glorified 
God more than an eternity spent by angels and men, and 
in the praises of Him. 

8. The last glass of time was turned up at the revela¬ 
tion of the Gospel by the Son of God • and now the last 
sands are running: when it is out, it shall never be turned 
more. 


o 

















210 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


FLA V EL. 

BORN 1627—DIED 1691. 

1. As the old, so the new creation begins in light; the 
opening of the eyes is the first work of the Spirit. 

2. In the studying of Christ it is as in the planting of a 
newly discovered country; at first, men sit down by the 
seaside, upon the skirts and borders of the land, and there 
they dwell; but by degrees they search farther and farther 
into the heart of the country. Ah, the best of us are yet 
but upon the border of this vast continent! 

3. The condemnation was Thine, that the justificatio?i 
might be mine ; the agony Thine, that the victory might be 
mine ; the pain was Thine, and the ease mine ; the stripes 
Thine, and the healing balm issuing from them were mine ; 
the vinegar and gall were Thine, that the honey and sweet 
issuing from them might be mine; the curse was Thine, 
that the blessing might be mine ; the crown of thorns was 
Thine, that the crown of glory might be mine; the death 
was Thine, the life purchased by it mine ; Thou paidst the 
price, that I might enjoy the inheritance. 

4. Souls are very dear. He that paid for them found 
them so; yet how cheaply do sinners sell their souls, as if 
they were but low-priced commodities. But you that sell 
your souls cheap will buy repentance dear. 

5. One heaven cannot bear two suns, nor one soul two 
kings; when Christ takes the throne, sin quits it. 















FLA VEL. 211 


6. If thy dearest friends intrude unseasonably between 
thee and thy God, it is neither rude nor unmannerly to 
bid them give place to better company. 

7. The devil knoweth that he hath a foul cause to 
manage, and therefore will get the fairest hand he can to 
manage it, with the less suspicion. 

8. O soul, of all the false signs of grace, none more 
dangerous than those that most resemble true ones, and 
never doth the devil more surely destroy than when trans¬ 
formed into an angel of light. What if these meltings of 
thy heart be but a power of nature % What if this act be 
more beholden to a good temper of body than a gracious 
change of spirit for those things ? 

9. The world affords not a sadder sight than a poor 
Christless soul shivering upon the-brink of eternity. To 
see the poor soul that now begins to awake out of its long 
dream, at its entrance into the world of realities, shrinking 
back into the body and crying, Oh I cannot, I dare not 
die! And then the tears run down. Lord, what will 
become of me, and what shall be my eternal lot. This 
truly is as sad a sight as the world affords. 

1 o. Religion is no fancy, as the atheistical world would 
persuade us ; and this evidently appears in the uniform 
effects of it upon the hearts of all men, in all nations of 
the world that are truly religious; all their desires, like 
so many needles touched by one loadstone, move toward 
Christ, and all meet together in one and the same blessed 
object, Christ. 

11. He that lives by faith shall never die by fear. The 
more you trust God, the less you will torment yourselves. 






212 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


B UN YA N. 

BORN 1628—DIED 1688. 

1. The doctrine of the Trinity! you ask me what that is. 
I answer, It is that doctrine that sheweth us the love of 
God the Father in giving His Son; the love of God 
the Son in giving Himself; and the love of the Lord the 
Spirit in His work of regenerating us, that we may be 
made able to lay hold of the love of the Father by His Son. 

2. Peace in a sinful course is one of the greatest of curses. 

3. The sinner, when his conscience is fallen asleep, will 
lie, like the smith’s dog, at the foot of the anvil, though 
the fire-sparks fly in his face. 

4. Blush, sinner, blush ! Oh, that thou hadst grace to 
blush ! 

5. Oh that I was one skilful in lamentation, and had but 
a yearning heart toward thee, how would I pity thee, how 
would I bemoan thee! Poor soul, lost soul, dying soul, what 
a hard heart have I that I cannot mourn for thee ! If thou 
shouldest lose but a limb, a child, or a friend, it would not 
be so much ; but, poor man, it is thy soul! If it was to 
lie in hell but for a day, but for a year, nay, ten thousand 
years, it would be nothing.; but oh it is for ever ! Oh this 
cutting ever ! 

6. Let the law be with thee, not as it comes from 
Moses, but from Christ; for, though thou art set free 
from the law as a covenant of life, yet thou still art under 







BUNYAN. 


213 


the law to Christ; and it is to be received by thee as out 
of His hand, to be a rule for thv conversation in the 
world. 

7. O Thou loving One, O Thou blessed One, Thou 
deservest to have me all. Thou hast paid for me ten 
thousand times more than I am worth. 

8. It was not my good frame of heart that made my 
righteousness better, nor yet my bad frame that made my 
righteousness worse; for my righteousness was Jesus Christ 
Himself, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. 

9. He that has lost his soul has lost himself! He is, 
as I may say, now out of his own hands; he hast lost him¬ 
self, his soul-self, his own self, his whole self, by sin and 
wrath, and hell hath found him. 

10. The angels now wait on God and serve Him; the 
Son of God is now a minister, and waiteth upon His ser¬ 
vice in heaven. Some saints have been employed about 
service for God after they have been in heaven; and why 
we should be idle spectators, when we come thither, I see 
not reason to believe. 

it. All the visions were rich, but this the richest, that 
the floor of the house shall be covered with gold. The 
floor and street are walking places, and how rich will our 
steps be then. .Gold ! gold ! all will be gold and golden 
perfections when we come into the Holy Place. 

12. Alas! we are a company of worn-out Christians. 
Our moon is in the wane; we are much more black than 
white, more dark than light; grace in the most of us is sore 
decayed. 

















214 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


CHARNOCK. 

BORN 1628—DIED 1680. 

1. Many times we serve God as languidly as if we 
were afraid He would accept us, and pray as coldly as 
if we were unwilling He should hear us. 

2. We would amplify His mercy and contract His 
justice; we would have His power enlarged to supply 
our wants, and straitened when it goes about to revenge 
our crimes. We would have Him wise to defeat our 
crimes, but not to disappoint our unworthy projects ; 
we would have Him all eye to regard our indigence, 
and blind not to discern our guilt. 

3. Man would make anything his end and happiness 
rather than God. 

4. Were it possible to see the picture of God accord¬ 
ing to the fancies of men, it would be the most monstrous 
of beings; such a God as never was nor can be. 

5. What is the reason that the heart of man is more 
unwilling to embrace the Gospel than to acknowledge 
the equity of the law % Because there is more of God’s 
nature and perfection evident in the Gospel than in the 
law; because there is more reliance on God, and dis¬ 
tance from self, commanded in the Gospel. 

6. Well, then, what awakenings and elevations of faith 
and love have we ? what strong outflowings of our love 
to Him 1 what indignation against sin ? what admirations 














CHAR NOCK. 


215 


of redeeming grace'? How straitly have we clasped our 
faith about the cross and throne of Christ ! Do we, in 
hearing, hang upon the lips of Christ; in prayer, take 
hold of God, and will not let Him go ! Do we act more 
by a soaring love than by a drooping fear % 

7. Without eternity, what were God’s perfections, but 
glorious yet withering flowers, a great but decaying beauty ? 

8. Custom dips men in as durable a dye as nature. 

9. Convictions are the first rude draught of the divine 
image on our spirits. 

10. Our spiritual extraction from Him is pretended, 
unless we do things worthy of so illustrious a birth, and 
becoming the honour of so great a Father. 

11. The last time is not called a time of destitution, 
but of restitution : and that of all things. The disorder 
of the creature, arising from the venom of man’s transgres¬ 
sion ; the fierceness of the creatures, one against another, 
shall vanish. The world shall be nothing but an universal 
smile ; nature shall put on triumphant vestments. 

12. The Church grows by tears, and withers by smiles. 
God’s vine thrives the better for pruning. 

13. Unsanctified wisdom is the devil’s greatest tool. 

14. The earlier the new birth, the weightier will be 
the glory in the kingdom of God. Young ones regene¬ 
rated, and enabled to bear head against the temptations 
of their violent natures, shall have crowns set with more 
jewels; they shall have an abundant entrance. 

15. There is such a thing as the new birth; believest 
thou this? It is necessary to be had; believest thou this? 
God only can work it; believest thou this % 




















216 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


FLEMING (ROBERT). 

BORN 1630—DIED 1694. 

1. In the worst of times, there is still more cause to 
complain of an evil heart than of an evil world. 

2. Bold sinning doth afterwards make faint believing. 

3. None are more ready to shrink, in a day of trouble, 
than those who at a distance seem most daring. 

4. How sweet is his smile in whose countenance heaven 
lieth. 

5. One minute sooner than God’s time would not be 
His people’s mercy. 

6. Oh, how marvellous a contrivance is there, when the 
blessed majesty of God finds an argument in Himself, 
when man had none wherewithal to plead. The Son was 
found in the form of a servant, and became our nearest 
kinsman, to redeem the inheritance ! His people’s stand¬ 
ing is ensured by another’s strength than their own; not 
on their apprehending, but their being apprehended. 

7. Is it not strange that multitudes in these times pro¬ 
fess the truth, and yet hate it, and were never drawn with 
the cords of love? How very many have courted the 
name of Christian, and have wooed the shadow of reli¬ 
gion, who never knew the truth thereof. 

8. Oh, what an excellent interpreter is experience ! 
Taste and see ! Thus the Christian getteth a view of 
spiritual things, which the most piercing eye of unsancti- 


















FLEMING. 


217 


fied schoolmen cannot reach. It cannot be found in 
books; men will not meet with it in a theory of choicest 
notions; it confoundeth the wise and the disputer of this 
world, while the meanest and most simple Christian often 
knoweth more than those of greatest parts. 

9. How strange is formality in such a business as 
prayer ! Sad that many times this should be rather a 
piece of invention than a matter of earnest pleading with 
the Lord ; not so much the breathings of the soul after 
Him, as the expressing what should be our desires! Oh! 
to what class can such a piece of atheism be reduced, as 
appears in our nearest approaches to God ! Should we 
look on prayer as a duty, and not consider it as a singular 
enjoyment also, without which earth would have a near 
appearance of hell, if we could not thus solace the soul in 
God, and get a vent under its greatest pressures. 

to. Oh, prayer, prayer ! what thoughts should we have 
of it, if the truth thereof were believed ! I think that 
man who is sure of the being and faithfulness of God, and 
of the reality of prayer, needs not be solicitous with what 
face the world looks on him. 

11. Oh, what rare mercies lie often hid under dire pro¬ 
vidences, even while they are at our hand, and are not 
seen, from the frowardness of an embittered spirit, that 
will not let its own eyes see the advantage of such a case; 
but, as if they did ivell to be angry against God, will 
quarrel more His crossing their humour than observe His 
tenderness in promoting their good, and cry against Him, 
because He will not undo them. 

12. I must say that, if the characters of godliness, 
















2l8 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


which the Scripture hath laid down, were seriously pon¬ 
dered, there never was an age wherein more professors are 
like to come short of heaven, and be found in a delusion 
about their state, than this. 

13. How few among the throng of professed Pro¬ 
testants, know what it is to have the Bible for the security 
of the Protestant interest, and thus quiet their souls, 
though all the foundations seem to shake, because they 
know the cause is God’s, and He is faithful when He has 
promised. 

14. Outward things do never yield less than when we 
press them most; and when we are eager in the pursuit of 
the world, our spirits are bruised with many perturbations; 
so that we must say, that that which keepeth us from 
enjoying God doth also hinder the comfortable enjoyment 
of ourselves. 















HOWE . 


219 


HO WE. 

BORN 1630—DIED 1705. 

1. If all that I am and have be from Him, I cannot 
surely owe Him less than all. 

2. As to religion, it is all one whether we make nothing 
to be God or everything; whether we allow of no God to 
be worshipped, or leave none to worship Him. 

3. God is in good earnest, and intends no mockery or 
deceit in His offer of peace. 

4. Though none can claim mercy, all may forfeit it. 

5. The soul hath its clothing, its vestment of life, upon 
as cheap terms as the lilies theirs; it doth neither toil nor 
spin for it. 

6. When our eye shall take in the discovery of divine 
glory, how sweet and satisfying a pleasure shall arise from 
that grateful mixture of reverent love, humble joy, modest 
confidence, meek courage, a prostrate magnanimity, a 
triumphant veneration; a soul shrinking before the divine 
glory into nothing, yet not contenting itself with any less 
enjoyment than of Him who is all in all. 

7. The womb of grace knows no maimed defective births. 

8. So far from doating on that popular idol liberty, I 
hardly think it possible for any kind of obedience to be 
more painful than an unrestrained liberty. 

9. How many visits from heaven are lost to us when 
we are, as it were, between sleeping and waking. 























220 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


10. The seal is fair and excellent, but the impression 
is languid or not visible. . We think to be saved by an 
empty name, and glory in the appearance of that, the life 
and power whereof we hate and deride. ’Tis a reproach 
with us not to be called a Christian, and a greater reproach 
to be one ! 

11. With what compassionate tears should the state of 
mankind be lamented by all that understand the work of 
a soul. 

12. It is not fatal necessity, but a wilful choice that has 
made thee miserable. 

13. Wherefore doth God discover His own heart to 
thee, but to melt, and win, and transform thine. 

14. Who sees not that a man is more wicked according 
as his will is more wickedly bent. 

15. How often do Christians meet and not a word of 
heaven! O heavy, carnal hearts ! Our home and eter¬ 
nal blessedness appear to be forgotten among us. 

16. There cannot be a greater participation of the misery 
of hell beforehand than a discontented spirit, perpetually 
restless and weary of itself; nor of the blessedness of heaven 
than in a well-pleased, satisfied, contented frame of spirit. 

17. Can the love of God live and grow in an unquiet, 
angry, uncharitable breast ? 

18. To converse with the holy is the way to be holy; 
with heaven, the way to be heavenly; with God, the way 
to be godlike. 

19. Let the weary, wandering soul bethink itself and 
retire to God. He will not mock thee with shadows as 
the world hath done. 



















HOWE. 221 


20. Their measured hour is almost out; an immense 
eternity is coming on upon them; and lo, they stand as 
men who cannot find their hands ! 

21. What is the whole of our life here but a dream? 
What is the entire scene of this sensible world but a vision 
of the night, where each man walks in a vain show ? 

22. God was made in the likeness of man, to make man 
after the likeness of God; He partook with us of the 
human nature, that we might partake with Him of the 
divine ; He assumed our flesh in order to impart to us 
His Spirit. 

23. When the whole soul shall seat itself in the eye ; 
when it shall be, as it were, all eye, wholly intent upon 
vision, what joy shall it taste ! How shall it, as it were, 
prey upon glory, as the eye of the eagle upon the beams 
of the sun. We read of thirsty ears ; here will be thirsty 
eyes, a soul ready to drink in glory at the eye ! 









222 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


GRAY (ANDRE W). 

BORN 1634—DIED 1656. 

1. One of the most soul-enriching exercises that a 
Christian can fall upon, is to wait for returns of prayer. 
There shall never be a word that he speaks to God, but 
he shall know what worth it is of. A Christian not 
waiting for the returns of prayer, doth obstruct many 
precious returns. Know this, if we had been waiting for 
answers to our prayers, there are many sweet returns 
from God which we would have had, in comparison ot 
what we now have. 

2. It is much to pray, as though we prayed not; to use 
the means, as though we used them not; to pray, and not 
to trust to our prayers. 

3. A Christian should watch before prayer, in prayer, 
and after prayer. It is not certain that a Christian will 
be serious the first ten words he speaks to God, and yet 
ere the end he will be dead as a stone 1 

4. Ere long the praying Christian shall be the praising 
Christian. We should long for that day when Christ shall 
say, Come up hither, and I will give thee a new name : 
thy name while thou wast below upon earth was a pray¬ 
ing and a complaining Christian ; but now I will give thee 
a new name : thy name shall now be a praising Christian. 

5. There is no rod which a Christian can bear worse 
than the rod which strikes at the root of his predominant 















GRA Y. 223 

idols; so a proud man can bear any cross better than 
reproach, and a worldly-minded man can bear any cross 
better than poverty. 

6. This is the house of complaints, heaven is the 
house of praise; this is the house of sorrow, heaven is 
the house of joy; this is the house of our pilgrimage, 
heaven is the house of our abode; this is the house 
of our misery, heaven is the house of our eternal solace, 
when there shall be no end of our joy and rejoicing. 
Wait, then, for behold He cometh with ten thousand of 
His saints. 

7. Here there is much repining and fretting at God’s 
dispensations ; but believe it, the day is approaching when 
ye shall write upon the posts of the doors of heaven, He 
hath done all things well. 

8. Love puts a tie upon the omnipotency of God to be 
forthcoming to His people. If a Christian have Christ’s 
heart, he shall also have His hands; if a Christian be 
beloved of Christ, He will give him the precious out- 
lettings of His power to help him to overcome the strong 
enemies that meet him in the way ; love and compassion 
in Christ makes Him give His hands to us when we are 
straitened. 

9. A Christian who does not observe his victories, wants 
many excellent songs. 

10. We must not expect two heavens; it is enough if 
we possess one. We must not travel to heaven through a 
bed of roses ; it is not much that we go to heaven in a fiery 
chariot, having afflictions and calamities our companions 
all the way. When our feet shall stand upon the threshold 






WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


224 


of the door of our everlasting rest, then our chains shall fall 
from our hands, and our fetters from our feet, and we shall 
lift up our heads with joy. 

11. Do not say thy wound is incurable, and thy stroke 
grievous; but comfort thyself with this, that there is balm 
in Gilead, and a Physician there. Let thy case be never 
so broken, bring it to Christ and He will heal it; commit 
it to the Advocate that never lost a cause. Oh how 
many broken and desperate-like cases has Christ pleaded 
in heaven ! Believe this, He can invent things for 
the clearing of our cause that we never could invent < 
ourselves ! 


1 















QUESNEL. 


225 


QUESNEL (PASQUIER). 

BORN 1634—DIED 1719. 

1. Jesus clothes Himself with us and our sins, that He 
may clothe us with Himself and His righteousness. 

2. Every one flies from tears, and seeks after joy; and 
yet true joy must be the fruit of tears. 

3. The only way to render perishing goods eternal, to 
secure stately furniture from moths, the richest metals from 
rust, and precious stones from thieves, is to transmit them 
to heaven by charity. 

4. It is peculiar to God alone that He need only will 
what He intends to perform. His power is His will. 

5. How terrible to the devil is the word of Jesus Christ! 

6. Great tempest, great calm; God proportions the 
comfort to the affliction. 

7. To call persons to the ministry belongs only to Elim 
who can give power over the unclean spirit of sin, and 
over the diseases of the soul. 

8. The church, or Christ entire, has the Incarnate 
Word for its head, and all the saints for members. 

9. O my Saviour, how dost thou confound the pride and 
vanity of men, in relation to their genealogies, by having 
Thine composed of a long line of sinners! 

10. A man ought to preach only that which he has 
learned from God, in the secret exercise of prayer, and of 
meditation on the Scriptures. 


p 













226 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


11. My God is my life; I die not but when I lose Him. 

12. How sweet is it to have our dependence on God, 
who comes to meet us, in order to solicit us to come to 
Him! 

13. The majesty of God is so great as to have a God- 
man for His servant. 

14. There are few who conceive how instrumental the 
tongue is to salvation or condemnation. We count words 
as nothing; and yet eternity depends upon them. 

15. That man wrongs the truth who submits to the 
caprice of its enemies in the manner of proving it. 

16. The garner of God is heaven; it is the bosom of God 
Himself. Thither His elect, who are His wheat, are 
carried, after having been bruised and ground by persecu¬ 
tions in this world, in order to become His bread in 
eternity, as He will also be eternally theirs. 

17. All the difference between a good Jew (of old) and 
a good Christian consists in this,—the one waited for the 
first coming of Christ in the weakness of mortal flesh, the 

. other waits for His second coming in the majesty of 
immortal glory. 








JANE WAY. 


227 


JANE WA V (JAMES). 

BORN 1636—DIED 1674. 

1. Faith goes to the borders of the promised land, 

to the very top of Pisgah, and upon Mount Nebo ; it * 
sends love into heaven, to dwell there with the Lord for 
ever. 

2. Let your hearts be early and late with God. 

3. The cross of Christ is the Christian’s crown; the 
reproach of Christ is the Christian’s riches; and the 
shame of Christ is his glory. 

4. If I had the wings of a dove, I would fly from the 
winds, the storms, and tempests of this wicked world, and 
rest myself in the bosom of my Father. 

5. God gives this world oftentimes to His greatest 
enemies; He gives glory in another world to none but 
His friends and children. 

6. They think they make a very wise bargain, when 
they sell their conscience, God, and heaven, for a little of 
that which some call riches. 

7. Oh that I could but bring down the price of sublunary 
things, and raise thehthings of that other world to their 
true worth ! 

8. How can they look for heaven when they die, that 
thought it not worth their minding whilst they lived ? 

9. Not every one that wears Christ’s livery shall have 
His wages. 















228 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


io. How many seeming saints shall gain nothing at 
death, but a thorough knowledge of their own folly ! 

n. He that counts nothing worth the having, except 
Christ, and for Christ, cannot be miserable, when he is 
lodged safe in His embraces. 

12. God is oftentimes better, but never worse, than 
His word. The running Christian shall at last obtain the 
prize, and the crown He fights for he shall wear. 

13. O ye foolish world, condemn not these spiritual 
wise merchants, till you know what their returns are, when 
their burden is delivered. 

14. How will the heavens echo of joy, when the Bride, 
the Lamb’s wife, shall come to dwell with her Husband 
for ever! 

15. I see now, it is not for nothing that the virgins did 
love Him. 

16. This Porter opens the door, and lets the saint’s 
soul into that palace, where all the favourites of that great 
Prince reside. 

17. If you would be better satisfied what the beatifical 
vision means, my request is, that you would live holily, and 
go and see. 

18. They that die in sin must be buried in hell. 

19. Who would be afraid of everlasting rest % 

20. It is our trifling with God that makes the thought 
of appearing before Him so dreadful. 

21. How can you live within a few inches of death, 
and look the king of terror in the face every day, with¬ 
out some well grounded evidence of your interest in God’s 
love h 















MARSHALL . 


MARSHALL . 

BORN- 1638—DIED 1680. 

1. His resurrection was our resurrection to the life 
of holiness, as Adam’s fall was our fall into spiritual 
death. 

2. We have in Christ a full reconciliation with God, 
and an advancement into higher favour with Him, 
than the first Adam had in the state of innocency; 
because the righteousness that Christ wrought out for 
us by His obedience unto death, is imputed to us for 
our justification—which is called the righteousness of 
God, because it is wrought by One that is God as well 
as man. 

3. Any the least change of our hearts and lives from 
sin to holiness before our receiving of Christ and His 
salvation by faith, is not at all necessary according to 
the terms of the gospel, nor required in the word of God. 
Christ would have the vilest sinners come to Him for 
salvation immediately, without delaying the time to 
prepare themselves for Him. When the wicked jailor 
inquired what he must do to be saved, Paul directed 
him forthwith to believe on Christ, with a promise 
that in so doing he should be saved; and straightway 
he and all his were baptized (Acts xvi. 30, 33). Paul 
doth not tell him that he must reform his heart and 
life first, though he was in a very nasty pickle at that 

















230 WORDS OLD AND NE W 

time, having but a little before fastened Paul and Silas 
in the stocks, and newly attempted an horrid wilful self- 
murder. 

4 . Christ would have us to believe on Him that justi¬ 
fied! the ungodly; and, therefore, He doth not require us 
to be godly before we believe (Rom. iv. 5). He came 
as a physician for the sick, and doth not expect that they 
should recover their health in the least degree before they 
come to Him (Matt. ix. 12). 

5. We are to know, that Christ requireth repentance 
first as the end to be aimed at, and faith in the next 
place, as the only means of attaining to it; and though 
the end be first in intention, yet the means are first in 
practice and execution, though both be absolutely neces¬ 
sary to salvation. For what is repentance, but an hearty 
turning from sin to God and His service 1 and what way 
is there to turn to God, but through Christ, ‘who is the 
way, the truth, and the life; without whom none cometh 
to the Father V (John xiv. 6). And what way is there of 
coming to Christ but by faith ? Therefore, if we would 
turn to God in the right way, we must first come to Christ 
by faith ; and faith must go before repentance, as the 
great instrument afforded us by the grace of God for the 
effectual performance of it. Repentance is indeed a duty 
which sinners owe naturally to God ; but the great ques¬ 
tion is, How shall sinners be able to perform it r l This 
question is resolved on by the gospel of Christ, Repent 
and believe. The way to repent is, to begin with be¬ 
lieving. 

6. The first right holy thoughts thou canst have of God, 






MARSHALL. 


231 


are thoughts of His grace and mercy to thy soul in Christ, 
which are included in the grace of faith. Get these 
thoughts first by believing in Christ, and they will breed 
in thee love to God, and all good thoughts of Him, and 
free thee from blasphemous and murmuring thoughts by 
degrees; for ‘love thinks no evil’ (1 Cor. xiii. 5). 

7. True humiliation for sin is either a part or fruit of 
faith ; for, on believing, ‘ we shall remember our own evil 
ways.’ Godly sorrow for sin is wrought in us by believing 
in the pardoning grace of God; as it is found by experi¬ 
ence, that a pardon from a prince will sometimes sooner 
draw tears from a stubborn malefactor, than the fear of a 
halter will. 

8. It is a true saying, That believers should not act for 
life, but from life. They must act as those that are not 
procuring life by their works, but as such who have already 
received and derived life from Christ, and act from the 
power and virtue received from Him. 














WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


BEVERIDGE (BISHOP). 

BORN 1638-DIED 1707. 

1. I cannot obey what God hath commanded me unless 
I first believe what He hath taught me. And they are 
both equally difficult, as they are necessary. Indeed, of 
the two, I think it is harder to lay the sure foundation of 
faith, than to build the superstructure of obedience upon 
it, for it seems next to impossible for one that believes 
every truth, not to obey every command written in the 
word of God. 

2. How glorious, how transcendently glorious must 
He needs be, who is the Being of all beings, the per¬ 
fection of all perfections, the very glory of all glories, the 
eternal God ! 

3. Man can suffer but he cannot satisfy; God can satisfy 
but He cannot suffer; Christ, being God and man, can 
suffer and satisfy too; and so is perfectly fit both to suffer 
for man, and to make satisfaction unto God, to reconcile 
God to man, and man to God. 

4. Christ by his life and death merited so much for us, 
because the same person that so lived and died was God 
as well as man; and every action that He did, and every 
passion that He suffered, was done and suffered by Him 
that was God as well as mankind. Hence it is that Christ, 
of all the persons in the world, is so fit, yea, only fit to be 
my Redeemer, Mediator, and Surety; because He alone 






BEVERIDGE. 233 


is both God and man in one person. If He was not man, 
He could not undertake that office; if He was not God, 
He could not perform it; if He was not man, He could 
not be capable of being bound for me; if He was not God, 
He would not be able to pay my debt. 

5. Christ lay three days in the tomb, that I might 
believe He was not alive but dead; He rose the third day, 
that I might believe He is not dead but lives. 

6. Christ is in heaven, not as a private person, but as 
the Head and Saviour of His church, and as I believe that 
Christ is there for me, so I am there in Him, for where 
the head is there must the members be; I am as really 
there in Him my representative now, as I shall be in my 
own person hereafter. 

7. I believe that Christ did purchase this inheritance 
for me from eternity, whereupon I was even then chosen 
and elected unto it; and had by this means a place in 
heaven before I had any being upon earth. 

8. How is it possible that I should be justified by good 
works, when I can do no good works at all, before I be 
first justified ! My works cannot be accepted as good 
until my person be so. 

9. It is not in the power of any person to merit anything 
from God; but such an one who is absolutely co-essential 
with Him, and so depends not upon Him, either for His 
existence or actions. 

10. I very much wonder how any man can presume to ex¬ 
clude the active obedience of Christ from our justification 
before God; as if what Christ did in the flesh was only of duty, 
not at all of merit; or, as if it was for Himself and not for us. 





234 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


11. I cannot look upon Christ as having made full satis¬ 
faction to God’s justice for me, unless he had performed 
the obedience I owe to God’s law, as well as borne the 
punishment that is due to my sins. 

12. Though it is the death of Christ, by which I believe 
my sins are pardoned, yet it is the life of Christ by which 
I believe my person is accepted. His passion God ac¬ 
counts as suffered by me, and therefore I shall not die for 
sin; His obedience God accounts as performed by me, 
and therefore I shall live with Him. 






FRASER. 235 


FRASER (JAMES, OF BREA). 

BORN 1639—DIED 1698. 

1. The soul, in conversion, closeth chiefly with the 
Person of Christ. 

2. Legal terrors in themselves tend to evil, though God 
accidentally drives good in them. 

3. A backslider ordinarily goeth a great length ere he 
recover. 

4. A fiery temptation may be suspended and calmed ; 
but until it be cured by the word, it will return again. 

5. A carnal generation of professors is greatly abomin¬ 
able to the Lord, and are great plagues in the earth, espe¬ 
cially to young beginners. 

6. A man’s whole life is but a conversion ; and the Lord, 
after every kind of backsliding, draws often in the same 
way as at the first conversion ; yea, and deals with them 
as they may seem never to have been converted before. 

7. ’Tis easy to let a man see that he is not converted, 
that he cannot save himself; but ’tis hard persuading him 
that he can do nothing, not so much as to be thankful for 
the least mercy. 

8. ’Tis the frequency and constancy of God’s waterings 
that doth good, rather than any measure of a particular fit 
or visitation; and from this more love may be gathered. 

9. There may be wearying, and loading, and real 
humiliation, though there be no terrors on the soul. Sense 


1 





236 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


of a dead, hard heart, is an effectual means to draw to 
Christ; yea, more effectual than any other, because it is 
the dead, miserable, and naked that God speaks to. 

10. If faith fetches all from Christ, then it brings nothing 
to Christ but deadness, blindness, and sinfulness. Come 
to Him for grace to prize Him. 

11. The whole life of man is a continued conversion to 
God, in which he is perpetually burdened under a sense 
of sin, and draws nearer and nearer to God with more 
fervent faith and love. 

12. There may be a real closing with Christ, and yet 
felt deadness and hardness. A sick faith is a living faith. 

13. I was put out of conceit with legal terrors; for I 
thought they were good, and only esteemed them happy 
that were under them. They came, but I found they did 
me ill; and unless the Lord had guided me thus, I think 
I should have died doating after them. 

14. Seldom do mercies good when there is too much 
peremptoriness in asking them. 

15. Prosperity, ease, and the desires of the soul, send 
leanness to the soul; the evils of the world are much better 
than the good thereof. 

16. Assurance of faith, though it do not firstly flow from 

holiness, yet is ever proportionable to holy walking. 

% 

17. Unbelief is more heinous than the sin of Sodom. 

18. When God afflicts, it is in earnest, and not in jest. 

19. There is no greater curse than for a man to get his 
will and desires in the world. 

20. God’s love is more seen in comforting and strength¬ 
ening under trouble, than in delivering from it. 

















BURGESS. 237 


BURGESS (ANTHONY). 

ABOUT 1640. 

1. Let not the troubled heart say, Where is my perfect 
repenting? where is my perfect obedience? but rather ask, 
Where is God’s forgiving ? where is God’s not imputing ? 
How hardly is the soul drawn off from resting in itself! 
It is not thy doing, but God’s doing. Thou must consider 
not what do I, but what God doth. Do not, then, look 
for Christ in the grave, when He is risen. Do not pore 
into thyself for this treasure, when it is to be looked for 
from heaven. Duties, graces will say, This is not in me. 

2. What quietness can a man have till he know what 
judgment the Lord hath of him ? 

3. Who would not think that, while God’s goodness in 
the Scripture is thus unfolded, there should not be a 
dejected, unbelieving Christian in the world ? Shall our 
sin abound to condemnation, more than His grace to 
justification? Because sin is too strong for us, is it 
therefore too much for the grace of God also ? 

4. God putteth no bounds to His mercy, whereas He 
doth set some to His anger. 

5. As it is hypocrisy to make our sins less than they 
are, so it is unbelief to diminish His grace. The sins of 
all the world, if they were thy sins, were but a drop of 
water to His mercy. 

6. Was not David, in his fall, like a tree in winter ? 












% 

238 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 

The moisture of grace was within, yet nothing did out¬ 
wardly appear. 

7. I will have no such free grace as shall take away 
godly sorrow. 

8. Do not think that justification giveth thee such a 
quietus est, that new sins daily committed by thee should 
be no matter of humiliation or confession. Our Saviour’s 
command is, that we should desire this forgiveness as often 
as we do our daily bread. 

9. At the last day, all these fears, diffidence, and dark¬ 
ness, will be quite removed out of our hearts. There shall 
be no more disturbance in our souls, than there can be 
corruption in the highest heavens. We shall then have 
such a gourd as no worm can devour. Our souls shall 
not then know the meaning of sitting in darkness, and 
wanting God’s favour. There will then be no complaints, 
Why hath the Lord forsaken me? Well may God’s 
children be called upon to lift up their heads, when such 
a ‘ redemption draweth nigh ;’ and well may that day be 
called ‘the times of refreshment,’ seeing the people of 
God are so often scorched with the fiery darts of Satan. 

10. Then this petition shall wholly cease; then there 
will be no serpent to sting us ; nor will the eye of justify¬ 
ing faith, to look upon the brazen serpent exalted, be 
necessary any more. The Lord will not only wipe away 
the tear of worldly grief, but also of godly sorrow, at that 
time. Then will the Church be without wrinkles, or any 
spot within her. In this respect it is the Church of God 
prayeth so earnestly for the Bridegroom’s coming. For 
this it is they look for, and hasten in their prayers that day. 













WATSON. 


WA TS ON. 

1649. 

1. Heaven is the highest link of the saint’s happiness. 
The lamp of glory will be ever burning, never wasting. 
As there is no intermission in the joys of heaven, so there 
shall be no expiration. When God has once planted His 
saints in paradise, He will never transplant them,—‘ they 
shall be for ever with the Lord.’ 

2. Prayer delights God’s ear • it melts His heart; it 
opens His hand. Plead with Him earnestly, and either 
He will remove the affliction, or remove the impatience. 

3. God being an infinite fulness, there is no fear of 
want for any of the heirs of heaven. 

4. That grace is tried gold which can stand in the fiery 
trial and withstand fiery darts. 

5. He that loseth his heart in the morning, in the 
world, will hardly find it again all the day after. 

6. The Lord’s Supper is the most spiritual ordinance 
ever instituted : here we have to do more immediately 
with Christ. In prayer we draw near through Christ: in 
this ordinance we become one with Him. In the Word 
preached we hear of Christ; in the Supper we feed on Him. 

7. Though our sins go up to heaven as the smoke of a 
furnace, yet Christ’s prayers go up as incense. 

8. Men can never pray fervently that do not pray feel¬ 
ingly, like Samson, when he said, ‘Shall I die for thirst?’ 







240 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


Daniel, in the den, prayed fervently and feelingly, and 
God did shut the lions’ mouths, and did open the lions’ 
den : ‘ The fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth 
much.’ 

9. Prayer is the wall and bulwarks of the land. God’s 
vials of indignation are not poured out while the sluices 
of prayer are open. 

10. When men cast off prayer, it is a sign they have 
cast off God; it is the brand of an apostate : ‘ thou re- 
strainest prayer before God.’ 

11. Sin casts the soul overboard, and the loss of the 
soul is an unparalleled loss; it can never be made up 
again. 

12. Mental prayer is not unheard—‘ Hannah spake in her 
heart.’ When the heart is so full of grief that it can only 
groan in prayer, yet God writes that down : ‘ My groan¬ 
ing is not hid from Thee.’ 

13. God’s ministers must have their hearts fired—not 
with passion, but with love; and as they are Christ’s 
ambassadors, must come to sinners with an olive-branch 
of peace. The thunderbolt may crush, but the sun melts. 
It is better to love as a pastor than speak as an angel. 

14. It is easy to turn white, into scarlet, but not so easy 
to turn scarlet into white; yet God hath promised the re¬ 
pentant sinner to make the scarlet of a milk-like white¬ 
ness:—‘Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be 
white as snow.’ 
















GUYON. 


241 


GUYON (MADAME). 

BORN 1648—DIED 1717. 

1. Banished from the presence of my Beloved, my 
Bridegroom, how could I be happy! I could not find 
access to Him, and I certainly could not find rest out of 
Him. I knew not what to do. I was like the dove out of 
the ark, which, finding no rest for the sole of its foot, was 
constrained to return again, but, finding the window shut, 
could only fly about without being able to enter. 

2. I henceforth take Jesus Christ to be mine. I pro¬ 
mise to receive Him as a husband to me. And I give 
myself to Him, unworthy though I am, to be His spouse. 
I ask of Him, in this marriage of spirit with spirit, that I 
may be of the same mind with Him,—meek, pure, nothing 
in myself, and united in God’s will. And, pledged as I 
am to be His, I accept, as a part of my marriage portion, 
the temptations and sorrows, the crosses and the contempt, 
which fell to Him. 

3. The misfortune is, that people wish to direct God , 
instead of resigning themselves to be directed by Him. 
They wish to take the lead, and to follow in a way of their 
own selection, instead of submissively and passively fol¬ 
lowing where God sees fit to conduct them. And hence 
it is that many souls, who are called to the enjoyment of 
God Himself and not merely to the gifts of God, spend all 
their lives in pursuing and in feeding on little consolations; 


Q 












242 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


resting in them as in their place of delights, and making 
their spiritual life to consist in them. 

4. Oh how excellent are the crosses of Providence ! All 
other crosses are of no value. 

5. I did not wish to speak of my troubles to others, or 
to make them known in any way. God had taught me to 
go to Him alone. There is nothing which makes nature 
die so deeply and so quickly as to find and to seek no 
earthly support, no earthly consolation. 

7. I was then, indeed, only like a dead person raised 
up, who is in the beginning of his restoration, and raised 
up to a life of hope rather than of actual possession ; 
but on this day I was restored, as it were, to perfect life, 
and set wholly at liberty. I was no longer depressed, no 
longer borne down under the burden of sorrow. I had 
thought God lost, and lost for ever; but I found Him 
again. 

8. In Thee, O my God, I found it all, and more than 
all! The peace which I now possessed was all holy, 
heavenly, inexpressible. What I had possessed some 
years before, in the period of my spiritual enjoyment, was 
consolation, peace—the gift of God rather than the Giver; 
but now, I was brought into such harmony with the will 
of God, that I might now be said to possess not merely con¬ 
solation, but the God of consolation; not merely peace, 
but the God of peace. This true peace of mind was worth 
all that I had undergone, although it was then only in its 
dawning. 

9. My soul was not only brought into harmony with 
itself and with God, but with God’s providences. In the 











GUYON ; 


243 


exercise of faith and love, I endured and performed what¬ 
ever came in God’s providence in submission, in thankful- 
fulness, and silence. I was now in God, and God in me ; 
and where God is, there is as much simplicity as power. 

10. Preach in a plain, simple manner; and, let me add, 
that the matter is still more important than the manner. 
Be careful what you preach, as well as how you preach. 
Preach nothing but the gospel—the gospel of the kingdom 
of God. And it is exceedingly desirable that you should 
preach it as a kingdom near at hand; as something not a 
great way off, but to be received and realised now. Aim 
at the heart. 

















WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


FENEL ON. 

BORN 1651—DIED 1715. 

1. Such is God’s greatness, that, in all His works, His 
own glory must be the sole end and intention. 

2. God alone can work these miracles of grace. He 
interferes, as it were, between me and myself; He makes 
separation in my heart; He puts self at a distance; He 
wills that I should go forth from the limits of self, and 
give myself unto him without reserve, as to whom, from 
whom, and for whom I hold all that I am and have. 

3. O God, men know Thee not. Thou art indeed the 
unknown God. Through Thee we live, and think, and 
delight ourselves in existence; yet we forget Him who 
giveth us all things richly to enjoy. 

4. Light of the world! Sun of the soul! Brighter far than 
that which cheers the bodily sense; by Thee all things are 
seen, yet art Thou Thyself unseen ! 

5. The multitude of the wicked far exceeds the number 
of the righteous; even the good seem to be but half in 
earnest. Make haste to manifest Thyself; give glory to 
Thy name, and vindicate its majesty against those who 
blaspheme. 

6. Vessel of clay! He who made thee has a right to 
destroy; but, far from seeking thy destruction, He labours 
to avert it. He menaces in mercy; and, if thou perishest, 
thou art self-destroyed. 






FENELON. 


245 


7. God is not in haste to crush His enemies; He is 
long-suffering because He is everlasting; He is certain of 
His blow ; He holds his arm long suspended, because His 
fatherly compassion is reluctant to smite, and because He 
knows how heavily His stroke falls. 

8. O treacherous good ! no longer will I call thee good, 
since thou dost but work our woe. And thou, which the 
world calls evil, and coward nature deems a weary load, 
the cross which God hath laid upon me, no evil shalt 
thou be to me ! 

9. Blessings for ever unto Thee, O my God, for that Thou 
hast made me a partaker of the cross of Christ, and a sharer 
in the sufferings of Him in whom Thou art well pleased ! 

10. How few there are who pray ! For where are the 
men who desire the genuine good % 

11. To be a Christian is to imitate Jesus Christ. 

12. It needs not that God find aught in us, nor can He 
find aught in us, save that which He has given by His 
grace. Let us not, then, fear lest our sin and misery have 
placed us beyond the range of the divine mercy. 

13. Give to truth, give to each individual truth, time to 
strike deep root in the heart. 

14. Beware of exaggeration! Violent excitement ex¬ 
hausts the mind, and leaves it withered and sterile. 

15. He loved us even to the death ! May this love 
kindle ours; filling our souls with peace and joy ; enabling 
us to resign grandeur, fame, and pleasure; to count as 
nothing all that time shall destroy; to will the will of God, 
and to watch in unwearied and blissful expectation for the 
coming of the Lord. 






246 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


PICTET (A FRENCH DIVINE). 

BORN 1655—DIED 1721. 

1. Sure I am that the greatest number of sermons that 
are now made and printed, fail in point of simplicity. I 
bewail the misfortune of this age, which obliges preachers 
to lose so much time in polishing their discourses, because 
their hearers seek to be entertained with eloquence rather 
than to hear the word of God. It was not so in the be¬ 
ginning. 

2. Ministers are bound to have no other aim than the 
glory of their Master; to preach, not themselves, but Jesus 
Christ; not to seek to shine by their eloquence, but to aim 
at bringing souls to the obedience of our Saviour. 

3. The blood of Jesus Christ is ever living before God, 
and crying, Mercy, mercy, who is He that condemneth ! 

4. Union with Jesus Christ is the foundation of our hope. 

5. The church, being the body of Him who is fairer than 
the children of men, how admirable must be its beauty ! 

6. We can do nothing without Christ, but He can do all 
things without us. 

7. Christ is the Lord and Sovereign of the whole crea¬ 
tion ; but He is especially the Saviour and Head of the 
Church. 

8. We may say that the church contributes to the com¬ 
pletion of Jesus Christ; for, as the head, though the most 
eminent part of man, would be useless if separated from 






PICTET. 247 


the body, so we may say that Jesus Christ would not be a 
Head, if He had not a body to direct. He would not, 
indeed, be less happy in Himself, bur He would not be a 
head; and in this respect, He obtains His completeness 
by being united with the church, and gathering together 
all its members. Oh what an honour for the church, to 
be not merely the body of Christ, but in some measure to 
contribute to His completeness ! 

9. ‘I will come on thee as a thief;’ how terrible these 
words ! I who destroyed the first world with a deluge ; I 
who consumed Sodom with fire ; I who destroyed Jeru¬ 
salem where My name was called; I who removed My 
candlestick from the churches which .the apostles founded! 
What shall we do, Lord, if Thou shouldst come on us and 
remove our light i Let us prevent so terrible a calamity 
by a speedy return to Thee. For Thou wilt come in such 
an hour as we think not. 

10. The body of the Saviour was formed out of the sub¬ 
stance of the Virgin, lest any one should adopt the dream 
of the Valentinians, that His body was sent down from 
heaven. 

11. All the sufferings of Christ were satisfactory (or pro¬ 
pitiatory) ; not those only which He bore during the three 
hours’ darkness, but those which He endured from the 
beginning of His life to His cross. For He could not 
suffer except as a surety; for if we deny suretyship, Christ, 
being wholly innocent, could not have suffered. 

12. Christ blesses us as did the priests of old (Rom. vi. 
23) • and His blessing is not bare words, like the blessing 
of a man ; but a real communication of spiritual gifts. 





248 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


SUPERVILLE (A FRENCH DIVINE). 

BORN 1657—DIED 1728. 

1. What! do you preach the power of the gospel with¬ 
out feeling it yourself 7 Can you influence the hearts of 
others with the love of God, unless your own heart first 
burn within you 7 Do you urge others to be reconciled 
to God and be saved, and do you yourself neglect this 
great salvation. 

2. O my soul! thou oughtest to make the cross of Jesus 
Christ thy highest knowledge, thy greatest glory, thy con¬ 
stant occupation. 

3. He that would find God must seek Him in Christ 
Jesus. 

4. You say, I have my faults, but at bottom I have a 
good heart. A good heart! Alas ! it is this that deceives 
you, for it is the worst part of you. 

5. The flesh, the old man, the old Adam, the law of sin 
which is in our members, all denote one and the same 
thing. This old man must be destroyed ; this law in our 
members abolished; this flesh crucified; it must die with¬ 
out mercy. 

6. Human virtues are like false coin, good in appearance, 
but indebted for its currency to the misery of mankind. 

7. Ah ! we were not able to stand when in innocence, 
how should we be capable of raising ourselves again, after 
we have been so sorely bruised by the fall. 










SUPER VILLE. 


8. Now Bethesda is everywhere, we may step down into 
the pool at any time, the waters are ever ready to perform 
the miracle, nor will the angel be wanting. 

9. The politicians, the philosophers, the sages of the 
world, are but quacks. What have they done toward the 
cure of the human heart ? 

10. Man is not cured but by a miracle, by the working 
of the Spirit of God. We must have a heavenly physician, 
and this is Jesus Christ. 

11. Under the law everything was shadow, under the 
gospel all is truth and reality. We have now the true 
Israel, the true deliverance, the true manna, the true taber¬ 
nacle, the true Jerusalem, the true righteousness, the trice 
atonement for sin, the true spiritual and reasonable service, 
the worship in spirit and in truth. 

12. Blessed be God, we recover more by the second 
Adam than we lost by the first. 

13. Here we have Him , who, by an adorable and incom¬ 
prehensible mystery, hath united glory with worthlessness, 
the Godhead with the dust. Amazing union! which hath 
sanctified and ennobled our nature, without lessening 
the Godhead thus united with our flesh. Jesus has 
a manger for His cradle, partakes of our flesh and 
blood, is circumcised, cries as an infant, sucks His 
mother’s breast. As man He suffers hunger and thirst, 
He watches, sleeps, and is weary ; He weeps, He fears, 
He dies. 

14. Christ did not take His human nature in heaven, 
nor did He prepare a heavenly substance in order to make 
a more than human appearance in the flesh; but choosing 






250 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


to be our brother, He was made in all things like unto His 
brethren, sin only excepted. 

15. Ah ! my Saviour has undergone not bodily pains 
only; in His soul He was afflicted with sufferings inex¬ 
pressible, not inflicted by the hands of men, but by God 
Himself. The floods of divine wrath overflowed Him. 
This caused His agony in the garden before the multitude 
laid hands on Him. 

16. Divine justice is a fire which no victim except Jesus 
Christ could suffer, without being entirely consumed. 
God, the eternal Word made man, was able to bear our 
sins without being destroyed. 

17. No, no ! nothing less than an offering of infinite 
price can save me, and this I find in Jesus alone. 

18. Constantly let us meditate on the worthiness of Him 
who died, and the unworthiness of those for whom He 
died. 






HENRY. 


251 


HE NR Y (MA TTHE W). 

BORN 1662—DIED 1714. 

1. Ignorant people have such a wonderful charity for 
all mankind, that they cannot bear to hear that any should 
go to hell; but whether you will hear, or whether you will 
forbear, I must tell you that there is a way which leads to 
hell, and great numbers of the children of men are walk¬ 
ing in it. I dare not flatter you. 

2. It is indeed a strait gate, but it is a gate, and it is 
open, not shut up and locked. We are not excluded, 
though admitted with difficulty; it is indeed a strait gate, 
but it leads to life, eternal life, and the life at the end will 
abundantly recompense the difficulty of the passage. 

3. Is it so hard a thing to get to heaven ? then up, and 
be doing, and strive to enter: we may sleep, and go to 
hell; but, if we would go to heaven, we must wake, and 
watch, and run. 

4. Can we, with dry eyes and unrelenting hearts, behold 
so many immortal spirits, capable of endless bliss, ready 
to drop into endless misery? Have pity upon them; 
think of the happiness they lose, the ruin they fall into, 
and then, surely, you cannot but mourn over them. 

5. Many sinners, but few saints; many weeds, but few 
flowers. 

6. If you are not willing your ministers should ask you 
questions, come and ask them questions; desire to be 


















252 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 

instructed. How gladly would I help the meanest in this 
congregation ! 

7. Remember, it is life, eternal life, we have in our eye; 
better be with a few in that land of the living, than with 
multitudes in the congregation of the dead. 

8. Consideration is the first step towards conversion 
(Ezek. xviii. 28). The prodigal first came to himself, and 
then to his father (Luke xv. 17). 

9. What! would you have him to be like nobody? The 
law of Christianity is a law of nonconformity to this world. 

10. Pride keeps the Church’s wounds open and bleeding. 

11. When those that profess religion are griping and 
covetous, false and unjust, loose and intemperate, this 
gives occasion to those who seek occasion to speak 
against it. O Jesus, are these thy Christians ! 

12. God has His witnesses in the world, that bear their 
testimony against the wickedness of it; a remnant, that 
have not bowed to idols (Rom. xi. 4, 5); a virgin-company, 
that kept their purity when all the world wondered after 
the beast (Rev. xiii. 3). 

13. The reason why sinners die, is not because there is 
no mercy for them in God, nor because Jesus Christ is 
either unable or unwilling to save them, but because they 
are not willing to come up to the terms on which the sal¬ 
vation is offered. He would, but they would not (Matt, 
xxiii. 37); He was willing to save them, but they were not 
willing to be saved by Him; this they may thank them¬ 
selves for. 







SHEPHERD. 253 


SHEPHERD (THOMAS)* 

BORN 1665—DIED 1739. 

1. They only do account it an easy thing to believe in 
Christ, who never were acquainted with themselves. 

2. We have many hinderers in our way to heaven ; but 
few that care to go thither themselves, and fewer still that 
are helping others thither. 

3. There is no great distance between an ungodly man’s 
grave and his hell. 

4. Great sinners, when brought home, are Christ’s glory 
and triumph ; as the physician boasts of his mighty cures. 

5. The joy that sinners have at their first conversion, is 
but an echo of the joy of Christ concerning them. 

6. An even frame, not much lift up nor much cast down, 
I look upon as the best frame, most honourable to God, 
and most advantageous to the spiritual life. 

7. Man is angry at the grace of God. His eye is evil, 
because God’s eye is good. 

8. Nothing in the world can hinder Christ’s joy in the 
soul, or the soul’s joy in Him. 

9. Sweat came in with sin, and is a branch of the curse; 
therefore the Lord Christ thus sweats while He is answer¬ 
ing for our sins, and removing the curse from us. 

* Author of some old Hymns, under the name of ‘Penitential 
Cries,’ generally appended to Mason’s Hymns. 















254 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


io. Soul! because thou canst not weep for thy sins, 
Christ bleeds; because thy heart is hard, and thy eyes dry, 
and can send forth no tears, every pore of Christ’s body 
does plenteously send forth tears of blood. 

n. How dear are little children to God ! He makes 
great account of them, and affords them a guard of angels 
(Matt, xviii. io). They have their heavenly courtiers, 
angels of the highest order to attend them through the 
world. 

12. Whilst thou art fooling away thy precious time 
among romances and play-books, the angels are searching 
into the knowledge of Christ; and their knowledge of Him 
feeds their admiring minds. 

13. It is no virtue to be always doubting. The word 
bids us believe, but never bids us doubt. 

14. True godly sorrow springs from faith. In order of 
nature, faith goes before repentance; but, in order of time, 
they both go together. True repentance springs from 
faith; from such faith as brings the wanderer back to his 
God. Faith inspires us with good thoughts of God, 
whereby we are persuaded that God is willing to entertain 
poor sinners, because He is gracious. 

15. Angels shall sound the trumpet in the morning of 
the resurrection (Matt. xxiv. 31). They shall gather up 
the bodies of the saints. They will sort the dust of the 
godly from that of the ungodly, and cause every grain of 
dust to know its fellow. The same body that sinned with 
the soul, shall be damned with it; the same body that 
prayed and worshipped God with the soul, shall be glorified 
with it, on the joyous mountains of eternity. 






HAL YBUR TON. 255 


HAL YBUR TON. 

BORN 1674—DIED 1712. 

1. Ye all have sinned ! Oh, if ye knew what a world of 
evil is in that cursed thing, sin ! Sin is an ordinary word, 
a little word, and most men do apprehend that there is 
but little in it. But mistake it not; there is much in it; 
more than angels or men can ever discover. 

2. In so far as we refuse compliance with the Gospel 
report, we are guilty of the death of Christ; for unbelief 
subscribes the Jews’ charge against the Son of God, and 
asserts Him to be an impostor. 

3. Every sin'hath robbery in it. It is an endeavour to 
carry away some one or other of the crown jewels of heaven. 

4. A Christian should be a man every way beyond 
others, and should have something peculiar in the whole 
of his conduct. 

5. If your ears were not deafened by sin, you might 
hear the groans of the ground you tread upon, of the food 
you eat, of the raiment you put on. 

6. It is only that strong and happy union between 
heaven and earth, God and man, in the person of Christ, 
that gives man any comfort, any strength or courage in his 
approaches to God. 

7. Surely there is nothing evil if this be not so, to lose 
Christ, which is indeed to lose all that is good. 

8. What ye want in yourselves, that ye have in Christ. 





256 ' WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


9. The approbation of God’s way of saving sinners by 
Jesus Christ, to the praise of the glory of His grace, I take 
to be the true scriptural notion of justifying faith. 

10. One view of forgiveness and pardoning mercy 
alienates the soul more from sin than twenty sights, nay, 
tastes, of hell. 

11. The joy of the Lord is only to be retained when we 
walk tenderly and circumspectly; it is inconsistent, not 
only with the entertainment of any gross sin, but with a 
careless walk. 

12. The night is far spent. ’Tis long since there was 
mention of His coming quickly. Darkness has continued 
long; and the growing of it, at this day, is not unlike the 
approach of the blackness of the midnight darkness, 
which, though terrible in itself, yet presages a speedy turn. 

13. Live in the faith of the day breaking. Let this be 
your stay, your joy in this dark day, when the earth shakes 
and reels like a drunken man. All is cloudy and black ; 
kingdoms tremble; crowns totter; and hearts are full of 
desponding fears. Fix this; dwell on it; the hope of it 
will be your comfort; cry for Christ, that He may turn, 
and be like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of 
Bether. ‘ Even so, come, Lord Jesus.’ 







WATTS. v 257 


W A TTS. 

BORN 1674—DIED 1746. 

1. Neither the acts of love, or zeal, or repentance, or 
fear, or worship, or any other acts of obedience, are 
appointed as the means of our justification, because these 
actions carry in them an appearance of Our doing some¬ 
thing for God, our answering the demands of some law; 
and this would make our justification by a law of works : 
but faith is that act of soul whereby we renounce our own 
works as the ground of our acceptance; acknowledging 
our own unworthiness, and giving the entire honour to 
Divine grace. We are saved by grace, that God may 
have the glory of all. 

2. Christ has the keys of death; and the gates of eternal 
life are in His keeping. 

3. The heart of a saint that comes near to God is 
pained at the memory of old sins; and together with a 
present sweetness of Divine love, there is a sort of anguish 
at the thoughts of past iniquities. 

4. Mere sighs and groans are for persons at a distance; 
but when we get near to God, we speak to Him even in 
His ear; the heart is full and the tongue overflows. 

5. I go to my best Friend, my Friend in heaven, when 
my friends here neglect me. 

6. We eat, we drink, we sleep; that is the life of nature: 
we buy and sell, we labour and converse; that is the civil 


R 





258 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


life: we trifle, visit, tattle, flutter, and rove among a 
hundred impertinences, without any settled design what 
we live for; that is the idle life: and it is the kindest name 
I can bestow upon it. We learn our creed, we go to 
church, we say our prayers, we read chapters and sermons; 
these are the outward forms of our religious life. And is 
this all ? Have we no daily secret exercises of the soul 
in retirement and converse with God ? Have we nothing 
to do with God alone in a whole day together 1 ? Surely 
this can never be the life of a Christian ? 

7. Could sinners go on in sin if they thought the judg¬ 
ment day just opening upon them, and Jesus Christ at 
hand ? Could we have such cold and lazy desires after a 
Saviour and his Salvation, if we thought our everlasting 
happiness or misery depended on the next day, the next 
hour, or the next moment? For we know not how soon 
the summons may come, and place us before His tribunal. 

8. O happy state, O blessed mansions of the saints, 
when this body of sin shall be destroyed, and all the rest¬ 
less atoms that disquieted the flesh and provoked the 
spirit, shall be buried in the dust of death, and never rise 
again 1 

9. Then shall thy heart, O sinner, be ready to burst, 
not with penitence, but madness and overswelling sorrows; 
and yet it must not break nor dissolve, but will remain 
firm and hard for ever. This is, and must be, an eternal 
heartache, for there are no broken hearts in hell. 



















BOSTON. 


259 


BOSTON . 

BORN 1676—DIED 1732. 

1. Faith is the hand that receives Christ and His right¬ 
eousness as the all of salvation ; and repentance unto life 
consists in that godly sorrow for sin which flows from faith. 

2. No sin of yours will ruin you, if you believe; and 
nothing will save you, if you do not. 

3. The outward means which the Lord usually makes 
use of to beget faith in one’s heart is the word, the word 
of the gospel, preached, heard, or read. Rom. x. 17. 

4. Melancholy is an enemy to gifts and grace, a great 
friend to unbelief, as I have often found in my experience. 

5. I found it was no easy thing to part with sin; and the 
impression on my spirit was that of my utter inability to 
put away sin. And I think I never had a more solid sense 
of the absolute need of Christ for sanctification. I saw it 
was as easy for a rock to raise itself, as for me to raise my 
heart from sin to holiness. 

6. I have sometimes wished for some drops of wrath to 
awaken me out of a secure frame; but I found one drop, 
one arrow intolerable. Who knows the power of His 
wrath % Tongue cannot express it. O precious Christ ! 
O precious blood ! Horror and despair had swallowed 
me up had it not been for that blood, the blood of God. 

7. Come, sinner, enter into a marriage relation with 
Christ. Sin shall not stop the match if ye be willing. 






260 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


He that could sanctify the virgin’s substance, to make it a 
sinless piece of flesh, can easily sanctify you. 

8. The body of Christ was not made of nothing, nor of 
anything but what belongs to Adam’s family ; that so He 
might be one of the family of Adam, a brother of those in 
whose name He was to act; and that so the same nature 
that sinned might suffer. 

9. Beware of any standing controversy betwixt God and 
you ; for if there be such, it will stare you in the face in a 
dying hour. 

10. ' Doubts and fears are no friends to holiness of heart 
and life. It is little faith that breeds them in the hearts of 
the people of God ; and little faith will always make little 
holiness. 

11. The saints’ dust is precious, locked up in the grave 
as in a cabinet till the Lord have further use for it. They 
are His precious fruit, that lie mellowing in the grave and 
ripening for a glorious resurrection. 

12. The last ship for Immanuel’s land is making ready 
to go. Therefore, now or never! The gospel is the 
Lord’s farewell sermon to the world. The Lord has made 
a feast for the world these five thousand years, and the last 
dish is served up now. Oh receive it not in vain ! 

13. As the deluge caught the old world sleeping in 
deepest security, so at the second coming of Christ, the 
sinners of the last times will be drenched in slumbering 
stupidity. 

14. Every pile of grass is a preacher of the loving-kind¬ 
ness of the Lord. 






ERSKINE. 261 


ERSKINE (EBENEZER). 

BORN 1680—DIED 1754. 

1. Love is the regnant attribute of the divine nature; 
‘ God is love.’ I do not find any other attribute so ex¬ 
pressed in Scripture. We do not find it said, God is mercy, 
God is justice, God is holiness, God is power, or God is 
wisdom; no, the expression of this attribute has something 
peculiar in it: God is love. 

2. It is a devilish humility that keeps you from believing; 
for the more unworthy you are of the grace or favour of 
God, the more fit you are for receiving the grace of God, at 
a throne of grace, by virtue of the covenant of grace. 

3. The Son of God has been carrying on the war against 
the devil, wresting his captives out of his hand, and will 
never leave the field till He has driven Satan out of his 
kingdom; and then we look for a new heaven and a new 
earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. 

4. The manna of heaven is rained down; God’s ban¬ 
queting house is opened; He is making to you a feast of 
fat things. Therefore, O starving sinner, come and take, 
and eat and drink abundantly; for there is bread enough 
and to spare; and, as every man and woman in the camp 
had a right to gather the manna, so has every soul a right 
to take Christ; to eat His flesh and drink His blood. 

5. Christ is the resurrection and life of a shattered crea¬ 
tion ; if it were not kept by His power, it would sink to 







WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


262 


nothing; and, when He hath finished what He designed, 
He will take it and purge it from sin that had defiled it; 
then He will erect a new heaven and a new earth, wherein 
dwelleth righteousness. 

6. The marriage-house is ready; both the lower and the 
higher stories of it are ready; and that moment you believe, 
you enter into the rest of the blessed Bridegroom. 

7. The best blood of the whole creation goes for the 
satisfaction of law and justice. 

8. It was upon the credit of Christ’s engagement to 
satisfy law and justice, that all the Old Testament saints 
were admitted into heaven. 

9. Christ’s first coming was to purchase a Bride for 
Himself by His obedience and death. His second coming 
will be to solemnize the marriage, and to fetch the Bride 
home to the royal palace, the house of many mansions 
that He is preparing for her reception. 

10. This is the thing that begets faith, love, hope, and 
confidence—God’s love in giving Christ. Have you seen 
God to be love 1 

11. Faith is the beggar’s hand, which comes, not to give, 
but to get Christ, and all with Him, for nothing. 

12. If the promise does not belong to you, and to all to 
whom it is revealed, as a ground of faith, it is impossible 
to conceive how an unbeliever can make God a liar 
(1 John v. 10). 





LA UR IN. 263 


M l LA UR IN. 

BORN 1693—DIED 1754. 

1. It is the glory of the world, that He who formed it 
dwelt on it; of the air, that He breathed in it; of the sun, 
that it shone on Him ; of the ground, that it bare Him; 
of the sea, that He walked on it; of the elements, that 
they nourished Him ; of the waters, that they refreshed 
Him ; of us men, that He lived and died among us—yea, 
that He lived and died for us; that He assumed our flesh 
and blood, and carried it to the highest heavens, where it 
shines as the eternal ornament and wonder of the creation 
of God. It gives also a lustre to providence. It is the 
chief event that adorns the records of time, and enlivens 
the history of the universe. It is the glory of the various 
great lines of providence, that they point at this as their 
centre ; that they prepared the way for its coming; that, 
after its coming, they are subservient to the ends of it, 
though in a way, indeed, to us at present mysterious and 
unsearchable. 

2. It is one of the hardest tasks in the world to bring 
the heart to a sincere persuasion that sin is indeed as vile 
as God’s word represents it; and that it deserves all that 
His law threatens against it. 

3. A great many are not properly so sorry for their sins 
against God’s law, as for the severity of God’s law against 
their sins. 





264 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


4. Though infinite goodness bestow undeserved favours, 
yet it is certain infinite justice will never inflict the least 
degrees of undeserved punishment. 

5. If men could hate themselves as they do their neigh¬ 
bours, it would be a good help toward loving their neigh¬ 
bours as themselves. 

6. Sin, in its very nature, is poison to the soul, tending 
to eternal death, separating it from God, who is its only 
life. 

7. To judge truly of the matter, it is certain the liberty 
of man is not hindered by the grace of God, but enlarged 
and perfected by it. 

8. A devout man, praying only for happiness, without 
praying for holiness, is a character yet unheard of. 

9. Human corruption proves always too hard for human 
eloquence; it is ever found to have strong enough footing 
in the heart to stand it out against all the golden sayings 
of the tongue. 

10. The meanest redeemed sinner can look upon him¬ 
self as the child of God, a member of Christ, a temple of 
the Holy Ghost. 

11. All men are convinced that they ar.e sinners, 
but very few are convinced that they deserve to be 
miserable. 

12. A principal hindrance to our embracing Christ’s 
righteousness, is the want of a due sense of our own un¬ 
righteousness. 

13. No man can pretend that the love of God tends 
to impair his health and waste his fortune, as the love of 
his lusts or his idols often does. 





M‘LA UR IN. 


265 


14. If mortifying our corruptions be uneasy, the satisfy¬ 
ing them is impossible. 

15. That which hinders the lovers of sin from acknow¬ 
ledging the glory of the cross is, that it shews so much of 
God’s hatred of what they love. 

16. The cross melts cold and frozen hearts; it breaks 
stony hearts; it pierces adamants; it penetrates through 
thick darkness. How justly is it called marvellous light! 
It gives eyes to the blind to look to itself; and not only 
to the blind, but to the dead. It is the light of life, a 
powerful light; its energy is beyond the force of thunder, 
yet it is more mild than the dew on the tender grass. 






266 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


ADAMS (THOMAS). 

BORN 1701—DIED 1784. 

1. Oh when shall I feel the plague of sin, and long for 
a deliverance from it as I would from a sore disease of 
my body! 

2. I seem to myself as a dark flint. By what kind of a 
stroke God will fetch light out of me I know not. 

3. My sins brought Christ to me and me to Christ. 

4. I see in other sinners what I am ; in Jesus, what I 
should be. 

5. I can say truly, I have great need of Christ; thank 
God, I can say boldly, I have a great Christ for my need. 

6. I fly from myself to God; I appeal from myself to 
Christ. 

7. My greatest obligation to God, next to the gift of 
Jesus Christ and His Spirit, is for commanding me to love 
Him with all my heart. 

8. It is to be feared, that a secret wish to be saved, 
without holiness, is the great bar to our progress towards 
perfection. 

9. If I grapple with sin in my own strength, the devil 
knows he may go to sleep. 

10. Not to sin, may be a bitter cross ; to sin, is 
hell. 

11. Oh that sigh ! Do happy people ever sigh ? I find 
I want something which God will not suffer me to have; 







ADAMS. 


267 


and till we are of the same mind, life can be nothing at 
bottom but one perpetual sigh. 

i 2. We can take reproof patiently from a book, but not 
from a tongue. The book hurts not our pride, the living 
reprover does; and we cannot bear to have our faults seen 
by others. 

13. - Christ says, ‘Sit down in the lowest room’; but the 
lowest, according to St Paul, is so very low, that hardly a 
single man will sit down in it. Read Rev. iii. 17, 18, Gal. 
v. 19-21, Titus iii. 3. 

14. Reading is, for the most part, only a more refined 
species of sensuality, and answers man’s purposes of 
shuffling off his great work with God and himself, as well 
as a ball or a masquerade. 

15. If we were but half Christians, the world would be 
at peace with us. 

16. I know so much of Christ as not to be afraid to look 
my sins in the face. 

17. Christ, by taking our sin on Himself, took it 
clean away from us; banished it out of the creation, 
and eternally annihilated it to every believer, who is as 
far from the charge of it before God, as if there never 
had been any such thing in the world. And if He did 
not do this for us, He did nothing. If we have one sin 
remaining that He did not expiate, we are still under a 
sentence of death. 

18. I believe for the remission of sins; I believe for 
Christ’s righteousness; I believe for power to love God 
and man; I believe for belief; and, God knows, I had 
rather be a believer than a king. 






268 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


19. I go to Christ with faith for faith. 

20. The Spirit, in the children of God, is like an organ: 
one man is one stop; another, another; the sound is 
different, the instrument the same, but music in all. 

21. If we do not live down error, I am sure we shall 
never dispute it down. 

22. The eager reading even of religious books may be 
dangerous, and a hindrance to those who are aiming at the 
true spirit of religion, if they have recourse to them instead 
of to God. 







EDWARDS. 269 


EDWARDS (JONATHAN). 

BORN 1703—DIED 1758. 

1. As it is the glory of the church of Christ that in all 
her members, however dispersed, she is thus one; one holy 
society, one city, one family, one body ; so it is very de¬ 
sirable that this union should be manifested and become 
visible. 

2. The mighty struggles and conflicts of nations, those 
vast successive changes which are brought to pass in the 
kingdoms of the world, from one age to another, are, as 
it were, the travail-pangs of the creation, in order to bring 
forth this glorious event. And the Scriptures represent the 
last struggles and changes that shall immediately precede 
this event, as being the greatest of all. 

3. This world is a dark place without Christ, and there¬ 
fore is dark till He comes, and until His kingdom of 
glory is set up. 

4. The Father had given Him the cup, and set it down 
before Him, with the command that He should drink it. 
This was the greatest act of obedience that Christ was to 
perform. He prays for strength and help that His poor, 
feeble human nature might be supported; that He might 
not fail in this great trial; that He might not sink, and be 
swallowed up, and His strength so overcome that He 
should not hold out and finish the appointed obedience. 

5. Christ had an extraordinary sense of His dependence 





270 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


on God, and His need of His help to enable Him to do 
God’s will in this great trial. Though He was innocent, 
yet He needed help. He was dependent on God as man, 
and therefore we read that ‘ He trusted in God.’ 

6. The coming of Christ Jesus, I believe, made an ex¬ 
ceedingly great addition to the happiness of the saints of 
the Old Testament who were in heaven; and especially 
was the day of His ascension a joyful day among them. 

7. It was necessary, not only that Christ should take 
upon Him a created nature, but our nature. He was 
formed in the womb of the Virgin, of the substance of her 
body, by the power of the Spirit. 

8. Both Christ’s satisfaction for sin, and His meriting 
happiness by His righteousness, were carried on through 
the whole time of His humiliation. Christ’s satisfaction 
for sin was not by His last sufferings only, though it was 
principally by them; but all His sufferings, and all His 
humiliation, from the first moment of His incarnation to 
His resurrection, were propitiatory or satisfactory. 

9. The time of Christ’s coming is spoken of as the 
morning, when Christ, who is the Sun, shall arise and 
appear; and His happy kingdom, that He shall then set 
up, is represented as the day-time. But the time that goes 
before that is represented as night-time, or a time of dark¬ 
ness, and we that live in that time as being in a dark place. 
The word of prophecy is as a light shining in a dark place, 
or as the light of a bright star in this night, a light preced¬ 
ing the day of Christ’s coming, like the morning star that 
is the forerunner of the day. 














WESLEY. 


WESLE V (JOHN). 

BORN 1703—DIED 1791. 

1. What could strengthen our hands in all that is good, 
and deter us from all evil, like a strong conviction that the 
Judge standeth before the door, and that we shall shortly 
stand before Him] 

2. The space from the creation of man upon the earth 
to the end of all things, is the day of the sons of men; the 
time that is now passing over us is our day; when this is 
ended, the day of the Lord will begin; but who can say 
how long it will continue ? with the Lord one day is as a 
thousand years. From this expression some of the ancient 
fathers drew that inference, that what is called the day of 
judgment would be indeed a thousand years. And it seems 
they did not go beyond the truth; very probably they did 
not come up to it. For, if we consider the number of per¬ 
sons to be judged, and of actions to be inquired, it does not 
appear that a thousand years will suffice for the transac¬ 
tions of that day. 

3. More especially will we speak, that by grace ye are 
saved through faith; because never was the maintaining this 
doctrine more seasonable than it is at this day. Nothing 
but this can effectually prevent the increase of the Romish 
delusion among us. It is endless to attack, one by one, 
all the errors of that church. But salvation by faith strikes 
at the root, and all fall at once where this is established. 

















272 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


It was this doctrine that first drove Popery out of these 
kingdoms, and it is this alone that can keep it out. 

4. Thou ungodly one, thou vile, helpless, miserable sin¬ 
ner, I charge thee before God, the Judge of all, go straight 
to Him with all thy ungodliness. Go as altogether ungodly, 
guilty, lost, destroyed, deserving and dropping into hell; 
and thou shalt find favour in His sight, and know that He 
justifieth the ungodly. As such, thou shalt be brought unto 
the blood of sprinkling, as an undone, helpless, damned 
sinner. 

5. Thus look unto Jesus. There is the Lamb of God 
who taketh away thy sins. Plead there no works, no right¬ 
eousness of thine own; no humility, contrition, sincerity. In 
no wise. That were in very deed to deny the Lord that 
bought thee. No; plead thou singly the blood of the cove¬ 
nant, the ransom paid for thy proud, stubborn, sinful soul. 

6. Who are they that are justified? The ungodly,—the 
ungodly of every kind and degree, and none but the ungodly. 
It is only sinners that have any occasion for pardon; it is sin 
alone which admits of being forgiven. Forgiveness has an 
immediate reference to sin, and to nothing else. It is our 
unrighteousness to which the pardoning Lord is merciful; 
it is our iniquity that He remembers no more. 

7. If God doth not justify the ungodly, and him that 
worketh not, then Christ hath died in vain; then, notwith¬ 
standing His death, can no flesh living be justified. 

8. There is scarce a greater help to holiness than a con¬ 
tinual tranquillity of spirit, the evenness of a mind stayed 
upon God, a calm repose in the blood of Jesus. All fear 
freezes and benumbs the soul. 







HERVEY. 


273 


HER VE Y. 

BORN 1713—DIED 1758. 

1. We are, I grant it, justified by works. But whose; 
The works of Christ, not our own. 

2. The salvation of sinners does not interfere with the 
justice of the supreme Legislator. On the contrary, it 
becomes a faithful and just procedure of the Most High, 
to justify him that believeth on Jesus. 

3. The righteousness by which we are justified is both 

legal and evangelical: legal in respect to Christ, who was 

« 

made under the law that He might obey all its commands; 
evangelical in respect to us, who work not ourselves, but 
believe in the great Fulfiller of all righteousness. We are 
iustified by works, if we look to our Surety; we are justified 
without works, if we look to ourselves. 

4. The ground of our comfort, the cause of our justifi¬ 
cation, is, not the grace of faith, but the righteousness 
which is of God by faith; not the act of believing, but 
that grand and glorious object of a sinner’s belief, the Lord 
our Righteousness. Faith recommends to God, and justi¬ 
fies the soul, not for itself or its own worth, but on account 
of what it presents and what it pleads. 

5. We ourselves are often the dreamers, when we 
imagine others to be fast asleep. 

6. The beginning of our cure is to be sensible of our 
disorder. 


s 
















274 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


7. Few applied to the blessed Jesus, in the days of His 
flesh, but the sons and daughters of affliction. The levee 
of that Prince of Peace was crowded by the lame, the 
blind, the diseased. 

8. True faith in Christ and His righteousness arises 
from the ruins of self-sufficiency and the death of personal 
excellency. 

9. We never maintain that any sacrifice whatever, not 
even the propitiation of Christ’s death, was intended to 
make God merciful; only to make way for His eternal 
purposes of mercy, without any prejudice either to the 
demands of His law or the rights of His justice. 

10. If you doubt whether Christ sustained the wrath of 
God, let us follow Him to the garden of Gethsemane. 
He had no remorse to alarm His spotless conscience, yet 
fearfulness and trembling came upon Him. What cause 
can be assigned for this amazing anguish? None but the 
wrath of His Almighty Father, who was now become an 
inexorable Judge, treating Him no longer as the Son of 
His love, but as the Surety for numberless millions of 
guilty creatures. 

11. It was Immanuel, the incarnate God, who pur¬ 
chased the Church with His own blood. The divine nature 
of our Saviour communicated its ennobling influences to 
every tear He shed, to every sigh He heaved, and every 
pang He felt. 

12. We can perform no good work till we are interested 
in Christ and accepted of God. 

13. Be always cheerful as well as serious, that you may 
win men to Christ. 
















RO MAINE. 


275 


R OMA INE. 

BORN 1714—DIED 1795. 

1. Do you desire from your heart that Christ should 
soon come, in all His glory, to judgment? Are you pre¬ 
paring and looking out for it as an event that may not be 
far off? If you are, then you are safe. 

2. Does not the present state of the world, as to religion, 
greatly resemble our Lord’s description of the men on 
whom that day shall come unawares, as a thief in the night? 

3. The cause of every possible complaint is in you, 
whether you feel it or not. You have an abyss of corrup¬ 
tion ; so have I; and perhaps felt it deeper than you have 
or will feel it. But I have a teacher who makes this whole 
body of sin profitable, and to the increase of my faith, and 
to the magnifying the grace of my Almighty Saviour. My 
daily lesson is to carry my burden to Him, and He carries 
both me and it; and, while we thus go on lovingly together, 
He often lets me look into the hell within; but He keeps 
my conscience sprinkled with His atoning blood; and even 
I do feel its sovereign virtue to cleanse me from all my 
sins, if they were ten million times more and greater than 
they are. Thus believing, yet groaning under my dreadful 
load, I hear the Father’s testimony, and I honour it, ‘ Thy 
sms a?id iniquities will I remember no morel 

4. In books I converse with men, in the Bible I con¬ 
verse with God. 


















276 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


5. John xvi. 14, 15, is a very favourite text of mine. If 
you look to the Greek, you will consider the word trans¬ 
lated show a gross mistake. It belongs to the ear, and not 
to the eye; not to seeing, but to speaking,—to the word, 
which, preached clearly, begets faith; and, which believed, 
nourishes faith. I would render the word, He shall clearly 
declare or preach, and so manifest the things of Christ, 
that they shall become the object of faith, and hope, and 
love. 

6. Peace being broken between God and man, the 
breach was made up by our great Peacemaker. The 
Gospel is the open proclamation of it, inviting sinners to 
be reconciled, and to enjoy the benefits of a free trade 
between heaven and earth. 

7. When I feel guilt, I quiet my conscience with the 
sprinkling of the blood of Jesus. When the miseries of 
sin are present, the love of God in Christ turns them into 
blessings. 

8. In my walk, in my warfare, in my duties, in my 
friendships, in everything, I live by the faith of the Son of 
God; whereby a man may be as certain that he is alive in 
Christ as that he is alive to this world. 

9. You are looking, not at the object of faith—at Jesus 
—but at your faith. You would draw your comfort, not 
from Him, but from your faith; and because your faith is 
not quite perfect, you are as much discouraged as if Jesus 
was not a quite perfect Saviour. How sadly does the sly 
spirit of bondage deceive you? For what is your act of 
believing? Is it to save you? Are you to be saved for 
believing ? 











WHITEFIELD. 


277 


WHITEFIELD . 

BORN 1714—DIED 1770. 

1. Oh, Prayer, prayer! It brings and keeps God and 
man together. It raises up man to God, and brings down 
God to man. 

2. It is remarked of Old Testament saints, that they 
rose early in the morning; and particularly of our Lord, 
that He rose a great while before day to pray. The 
morning befriends devotion; and if people cannot use 
so much self-denial as to rise early to pray, I know 
not how they will be able to die at a stake for Jesus- 
Christ. 

3. Good works have their proper place. They justify 
our faith , though not our persons; they follow it, and evi¬ 
dence our justification in the sight of men. 

4. Do not say I preach despair. I despair of no one, 
when I consider God had mercy on such a wretch as I, 
who was running in a full career to hell. 

5. Give the world the lie. Press forward. Do> not stop, 
do not linger in your journey; but strive for the mark set 
before you. 

6. If any here do expect fine preaching from me to-day, 
they will go away disappointed. I came not here to shoot 
over people’s heads, but, if the Lord be pleased to bless 
me, to reach their hearts. 

7. Why should I lean upon a broken reed, when I can 





















278 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


have the Rock of Ages to stand upon, that shall never be 
moved ? 

8. O grey-headed sinners ! I could weep over you. 
Your grey hairs, which ought to be your crown, are now 
your shame. 

9. Come, little children, come to Christ. Come while 
you are young. Do not stay for other people. If your 
fathers and mothers will not come to Christ, come you 
without them. 

10. What if thou hadst committed the sins of a thou¬ 
sand ? What if thou hadst committed the sins of a million 
worlds ? Christ’s righteousness will cover, Christ’s blood 
will cleanse thee from the guilt of all. 

11. It is very remarkable that the Old Testament ends 
with the word curse; but the New with a precious blessing, 
even the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

12. God is not only a help, but a present help ; the gates 
of the New Jerusalem stand open night and day. 

13. Did you ever hear any of the devil’s children 
compose an ode, that the devil is ‘ our refuge,’ that the 
god of this world is a present help in time of trouble? 
Did you ever hear any say that the forty-sixth Psalm was 
founded on a lie ? 

14. What will you do when the elements shall melt with 
fervent heat? when this earth, with all its fine furniture, shall 
be burnt up : when the angel shall cry that time shall be 
no more? 

I 5 - There is no river to make glad the inhabitants of 
hell, no streams to cool them in the scorching fire. 

16. Fly, sinner, fly ! God help thee to fly ! Hark, hear 





WHI TEFIELD. 279 


the word of the Lord ! See the world consumed, the 
Avenger at thy heels ! Before to-morrow you may be 
damned for ever ! 

17. We do not live up to our dignity, till every day we 
are waiting for the coming of our Lord from heaven. 

18. I did not speak that word strong enough, which 
says, 4 He that believeth not shall be damned.’ It is said 
of one of the primitive preachers, that he used so to speak 
that word 4 damned,’ that it struck all his hearers. We 
are afraid of speaking that word for fear of offending such 
and such, who yet despise the servant for not being so 
honest as his Master. 
















WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


280 


BERRIDGE (JOHN). 

BORN 1716—DIED 1793. 

1. None can redeem a world but the Maker of it. 

2. I marvel much that any who allow the imputation 
of Christ’s death , should object to the imputation of His 

life. 

3. Working for life is the law of Moses; believing for 
life is the law of Jesus. 

4. None can come to Jesus except the Father draws 
them. Yet sinners do not perish because they cannot 
come, but because they will not come. 

5. Truly, my friend, your cross is just the same 
with my own. I am not able to walk a step without 
a crutch. The wood of it comes from Calvary. My crutch 
is Christ; and a blessed crutch He is. Oh let me lean 
my whole weight on Thee whilst I am walking through the 
wilderness. 

6. No prophet used ‘verily, verily,’ before Christ, nor 
any apostle after Christ; it seems an expression peculiarly 
belonging to Him who is truth itself, and therefore only fit 
for Him to use. 

7. If we desire to be holy, we must seek to be happy 
in the Saviour’s love. 

8. Holiness, as well as pardon, is to be had from the 
blood of the cross. 

9. All fancied sanctification, which does not arise 







BERRIDGE. 


281 


wholly from the blood of the cross, is nothing better than 
Pharisaism. 

10. What litter destruction the Lord’s own servants 
would make in His vineyard, if the Lord Himself did not 
hold the vines in His right hand ! 

11. A furnace seems a hot atmosphere to breathe in, 
and a deadly path to walk in; but it is really a place of 
liberty. 

12. Everlasting thanks for a Surety, whos’e blood is of 
infinite value, and who can save to the uttermost. 

13. The Lord help us to gird up our loins and trim our 
lamps. The Lord make us watchful and prayerful, look¬ 
ing and longing for the coming of the Bridegroom. 

14. A Christian never falls asleep in the fire or in the 
water, but grows drowsy in the sunshine. 

15. How easily we can mistake frothy mirth for gospel 
joy ; yet how wide is the difference ! Joy in the Lord, as 
it is the most delightful, so it is the most serious thing in 
the world, filling the soul with holy shame and blushing, 
drawing tears of sweetest love. Laughter is not found in 
heaven. All are too happy there to laugh. 

16. Much reading and thinking may make a popular 
minister; but much secret prayer must make a powerful 
preacher. 

17. Much secret prayer will solemnize your heart, and 
make your visits savoury as well as your sermons. The 
old Puritans visited their flocks by house-row. The visits 
were short ; they talked a little for God, and then con¬ 
cluded with prayer to God. An excellent rule, which pre¬ 
vented tittle-tattle, and made visits profitable. 



















282 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


18. All decays begin in the closet; no heart thrives 
without much secret converse with God ; and nothing will 
make amends for the want of it. I can read God’s Word, 
or hear a sermon at times, and feel no life; but I never 
rise from secret prayer without some quickening. 

19. Never am I well but when at home with Jesus. 

20. O heart, heart! what art thou ? A mass of fooleries 
and absurdities; the vainest, foolishest, craftiest, wickedest 
thing in nature. Yet the Lord Jesus asks me for this 
heart; wooes me for it, died to win it! O wonderful love! 
adorable condescension ! 

21. I want His fountain every day, His intercession 
every moment; and would not give a groat for the broadest 
fig leaves, or the brightest human rags to cover me. A 
robe I must have, of one whole piece, broad as the law, 
spotless as the light, and richer than an angel ever wore, 
the robe of Jesus. 







PIKE, 


283 


PIKE (SAMUEL)* 

BORN 1717—DIED 1773. 

1. The perfect work of Christ is presented, in the 
gospel, to be directly believed on, as the only, the sure, 
the immediate ground of a sinner’s peace and hope before 
God. And if this testimony, believed on in the conscience, 
will not convey peace, I know not what will or can. 

2. Christ Himself is the object of faith; the truth, or 
gospel of Christ, is the matter of faith; the divine evidence 
of the truth is the ground of faith; the declaration and 
hearing the truth is the medium of faith; and the Spirit of 
truth the author of faith. 

3. If a person strives to perform any duties, or aims to 
exert any acts, in order to obtain peace with God, he con¬ 
tradicts the truth of the gospel; yea, the very turn of his 
thought and the desire of his mind are contrary to the 
perfect freedom of grace in Christ, which the gospel was 
written to testify. 

4. When a person receives the divine truth, his thoughts 
are not at all occupied about the nature of faith, or about 
the workings of his own mind, any more than we are 
engaged in examining into the nature of light and vision 
at the time that we are gazing with pleasure at any object. 
But what he is thinking about is the nature, evidence, 


* Author of the well known Work, ‘ Brief Thoughts on the Gospel.’ 



















284 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 

suitableness, and importance of what is testified in the 
divine word concerning Jesus Christ, as a free and com¬ 
plete Saviour for sinners. 

5. If a person’s attention, for the ease of his mind and 
conscience, is drawn to the experiences of his own heart, 
instead of the free grace revealed in the gospel, then, 
though he accounts himself to believe in Christ, yet he 
has only something like the truth imprinted on his imagi¬ 
nation in a delusive way; and, as his soul is not drawn to 
it and by it, it has not really taken possession of his heart 
and conscience. 

6. All those exercises, and prayers, and efforts are 
wrong, which suppose that some act must be exerted in 
order to gain an interest in Christ; that the knowledge of 
our peculiar interest is the proper relief of the guilty con¬ 
science ; that the truth of the gospel believed is not 
sufficient to comfort the soul; that the Holy Spirit conveys 
the assurance of special interest into the mind without 
scriptural evidence, whispering something more to the 
soul than what is contained in the divine word. 

7. The self-deceiver has no notion that God freely 
justifies the ungodly. He thinks that God first implants 
a principle of holiness in the heart, draws forth grace 
into exercise, and then the person is justified in conse¬ 
quence of such an exercise, and has peace of conscience 
from the good quality of his own actings. Under the 
power of these sentiments, he avoids a direct trust in the 
divine mercy revealed, having no idea of any such free¬ 
ness of grace as shall give hope and peace, merely from 
what the gospel testifies concerning the free and complete 
















PIKE. 


285 


redemption in Jesus Christ. As these actings of mind do 
not flow from the belief, but from the disbelief of the truth, 
the hope of the soul terminates upon a wrong object. For 
his chief comfort hinges on the idea he has got of the 
nature of his own acts and experiences; so that, in reality, 
the mind does not recur to a free Christ for relief, but to 
the marks and signs of interest; the soul does not lean on 
the Rock of Ages, but upon the supposed validity of its 
evidences; does not take shelter in Christ, but in its own 
frames and feelings; the soul being encouraged or dis¬ 
couraged, distressed or comforted, just as it thinks it has 
or has not exerted the act of faith aright. Thus the whole 
matter turns, not upon the question whether the gospel be 
true, but whether the inward feelings and experiences are 
right. 
















286 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


BRAINERD (DA VID). 

BORN 1718—DIED 1747. 

1. I felt insatiable longings after God this day. I won¬ 
dered how poor souls live that have no God. The world, 
with all its enjoyments, quite vanished. I longed ex¬ 
ceedingly to be dissolved, and to be with Christ. Oh my 
weary soul longs to arrive at my Father’s house ! 

2. Oh how divinely sweet it is to come into the secret 
of His presence, and abide in His pavilion ! 

3. None knows but those who feel it, what the soul 
endures when shut out from the sensible presence of God. 
It is more bitter than death 7 

4. I exhorted the people to love one another, and not 
to set up their own frames as a standard to try all their 
brethren by. 

5. Filling up our time with and for God is the way to 
rise up and lie down in peace. 

6. Oh how dark it looked to think of being unholy for 
ever ! This I could not endure. 

7. There are many with whom I can talk about reli¬ 
gion ; but, alas ! I find few with whom I can talk religio?i 
itself. 

8. I longed to spend the little inch of time I have in the 
world more for God. My soul, my very soul, longed for 
the ingathering of the poor heathen. I was tenderly 
affected toward all the world, longing that every sinner 
















BRA 1 NERD. 


287 


might be saved, and could not have entertained any 
bitterness towards the worst enemy living. 

9. My soul was drawn out for the interest of Zion, and 
comforted with the lively hope of the appearing of the 
kingdom of the great Redeemer. These were sweet 
moments ! I felt almost loath to go to bed, and grieved 
that sleep was necessary. 

10. If I cannot behold the excellencies of God as to 
cause me to rejoice in Him for what He is in Himself, I 
have no solid foundation for joy. To rejoice only because 
I apprehend I have an interest in Christ, and shall be 
finally saved, is a poor, mean business indeed. 

11. My soul centred in God as my only portion; and I 
felt that I should be for ever unhappy if He did not reign. 

12. I viewed the infinite excellency of God till my soul 
even broke with longings that He should be glorified. I 
thought of dignity in heaven; but instantly the thought 
returned, 1 1 do not go to heaven to get honour, but to 
give all possible glory and praise.’ Oh how I longed that 
God should be glorified on earth also ! Oh I was made 
for eternity, if God might be glorified ! 

13. I was born on a Sabbath-day; I was new-born on a 
Sabbath-day; and I hope I shall die on a Sabbath-day. 
I long for the time. Oh why is His chariot so long in 
coming ! 

14. Oh that His kingdom might come; that all might 
love and glorify Him for what He is in Himself, and that 
the blessed Redeemer might see of the travail of His 
soul, and be satisfied! Oh come, Lord Jesus, come 
quickly. Amen! 






288 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


I 


BROWN (JOHN, OF HADDINGTON). 

BORN 1722—DIED 1787. 

1. Notwithstanding my eager hunting after all the lawful 
learning which is known among the sons of men, God hath 
made me generally preach as if I had never read another 
book but the Bible. 

2. Often we read history as atheists or deists, rather 
than as Christians. To read of events, without observing 
God in them, is to read as atheists; to read, and not 
observe how all events conduce to carry on the work of 
redemption, is to read as deists. 

3. The doctrine of grace reigning through righteousness 
is good to live with, and good to die with. 

4. I have lived sixty years very comfortably in this 
world; yet I would gladly turn my back on all to be with 
Christ. 

5. Many a comely person I have seen; but none so 
comely as Christ. Many a kind friend I have had; but 
none like Christ, in loving-kindness and in tender mercies. 

6. Reading tires me, walking tires me, riding tires me; 
but, were I once with Jesus above, fellowship with Him 
will never tire. 

7. I have served several masters, but none so kind as 
Christ. I have dealt with many honest men, but no 
creditor like Christ. 

8. Nothing is more common, easy, or agreeable to 












BROWN. 


289 


corrupt nature, than to preach a multitude of the precious 
truths of God in a broken and disjointed manner, without 
ever preaching the Gospel of Christ. 

9. The least neglect to hold forth Christ as God’s free gift 
and our all, in any privilege or duty; or the least recom¬ 
mendation of sincerity, repentance, &c., as the ground of 
our warrant to receive Jesus Christ, or as the condition 
of our title to salvation, tends to pervert the Gospel. 

10. The Gospel preacher, when offering relief to sinners, 
ought to represent the persons for whom Christ offered 
Himself, as a propitiation, under the character of men, 
many, unjust, ungodly, without sire?igth, enemies to God', 
shiners, condemned in law, lost, &c. He is to invite men 
to Christ, not as elect, or as sensible sinners duly convinced, 
or good-hearted ; but as men, sons of Adam, simple, foolish, 
scorners, stout-hearted, far from righteousness, wicked, dis¬ 
obedient, gainsaying, heavy laden with guilt and trouble, 
thirsting for happiness in anything, however vain and vile, 
self-conceited, weariers of God by their iniquities, who 
have spoken and done evil things as they could; nay, as 
many as they find out of hell. 

11. No mark of grace ought to be given but such as 
can be traced up to a believing of the record which God 
hath given of His Son. 

12. What hard, knotty timber must we be, that the 
Lord hath to hack us so much, in order to render us plain 
and smooth ! 

13. Can virgin-love be better placed than on a Divine 
Husband % Can early years be better spent than in fellow¬ 
ship with Him ] 


T 





290 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


NE WTON (JOHN). 

BORN 1725—DIED 1807. 

1. What some call providential openings, are often 
powerful temptations. The heart, in wandering, cries, 
‘ Here is a way opened before me! ’ but, perhaps, not to 
be trodden, but rejected. 

2. A Christian should never plead spirituality for being 
a sloven; if he be but a shoe-cleaner, he should be the 
best in the parish. 

3. Many have puzzled themselves about the origin of 
evil: I observe that there is evil, and that there is a way 
to escape it; and with this I begin and end. 

4. Christ has taken our nature into heaven, to represent us; 
and has left us on earth, with His nature, to represent Him. 

5. The religion of a sinner stands on two pillars,— 
namely, what Christ did for us in His flesh, and what He 
performs in us by His Spirit. Most errors arise from an 
attempt to separate these two. 

6. A Christian in the world is like a man transacting 
his affairs in the rain. He will not suddenly leave his 
client because it rains; but the moment the business is 
done he is gone : as it is said in the Acts— c Being let go, 
they went to their own company.’ 

7. When a Christian goes into the world because he 
sees it his call, yet, while he feels it also his cross, it will 
not hurt him. 














NEWTON. 


291 


8. If an angel were sent to find the most perfect man, 
he would probably not find him composing a body of 
divinity, but lying a cripple in a poorhouse. 

9. Man is not taught anything to good purpose till God 
becomes his teacher: and then the glare of the world is 
put out, and the value of the soul rises in full view. 

10. God deals with us as we do with children: He first 
speaks; then gives a gentle stroke; at last, a blow. 

11. We must go to the foot of the cross to understand 
what the Scripture declares of God’s holiness, justice, and 
truth, and the wonderful method by which they are brought 
to harmonise with the designs of His mercy and grace in 
the salvation of sinners. 

12. Worldly men are alway true to their principles; and 
if we were as true to ours, the visits between the two 
parties would be short and seldom. 

13. Much depends on the way we come into trouble. 
Paul and Jonah were both in a storm, but in very different 
circumstances. 

14. A dutiful child is ever looking forward to the holi¬ 
days, when he shall return to his father; but he does not 
think of running from school before. 

15. If two angels came down from heaven to execute a 
divine command, and one was appointed to conduct an 
empire, and the other to sweep a street in it, they would 
feel no inclination to exchange employments. 

16. I am satisfied that the almighty power which 
sustains the stars in their orbits is equally necessary to 
carry me with safety, honour, and comfort through the 
smoothest day of my life. 




WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


HORNE (BISHOP). 

BORN 1730—DIED 1792. 

1. The power of Christ will be manifested in all, by the 
destruction either of sin or the sinner. The hearts which 
now yield to the impressions of His Spirit are broken only 
in order to be formed anew, and to become vessels of 
honour fitted for the Master’s use. Those which continue 
stubborn must be dashed in pieces by the stroke of eternal 
vengeance. 

2. Christ beseeches kings, no less than their subjects, 
to be reconciled to Him, and by Him to the Father, since 
a day is at hand when mighty men shall have no distinc¬ 
tion but that of being mightily tormented. 

3. Let faith teach thee how to sleep and how to die ; 
while it assures thee that as sleep is a short death, so 
death is only a longer sleep; and that the same God 
watches over thee in thy bed and in thy grave. 

4. Thou, O Christ, art everlasting truth; all is vanity and 
falsehood, transient and fallacious, but the love of Thee. 

5. The all-righteous Saviour Himself wept over sinners; 
sinners read the story, and yet return again to their sins ! 

6. The Spirit and the bride say, Come! Arise, O 
Lord Jesus, from Thy throne of glory, and come quickly; 
let not the man of sin prevail against Thy church, but let 
the long depending cause between her and her adversaries 
be judged and finally determined in Thy sight. 









HORNE. 


293 


7. Vain were the idols of the ancient world, Baal and 
i Jupiter; as vain are those of modern times, Pleasure, 

Honour, and Profit. 

8. Thus will the Lord, our Saviour, provide for us on 
earth and conduct us to heaven; where we shall dwell to 
‘ length of days,’ even the days of eternity, ‘one fold 
under one Shepherd;’ a fold into which no enemy enters, 
and from which no friend departs. 

9. Earth is the land of the dying : we must extend our 
prospect into heaven, which is ‘ the land of the living.’ 

10. The hope of the church was always in Messiah. 
Of old she prayed for the mercy of His first advent; now 
she expecteth His second. 

11. The coming of Christ is twofold : first, He came to 
sanctify the creature, and He will come again to glorify it. 
If creation be represented as rejoicing at the accomplish¬ 
ment of the former, how much greater will the joy be at 
the approach of the latter. And not only they, but our¬ 
selves also, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan 
within ourselves, waiting for the redemption of the body, 
when, at the renovation of all things, man, new-made, 
shall return to the days of his youth, to begin an immor¬ 
tal spring, and be for ever young. 















WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


294 


HILL (SIR RICHARD). 

BORN 1732—DIED 1808. 

1. How long might one live with some persons, who are 
looked upon as very good Christians, and not know 
whether they had any souls or not! 

2. If you will be the world’s favourite, you must be 
neither too like God nor too like the devil. 

3. The most dangerous infidels are not the most open 
infidels. There is a set of men who persuade themselves 
that they believe Christianity, whilst in truth they are rea¬ 
soning Christianity quite out of doors. 

4. When a poor unawakened soul, who has long lingered 
under some bodily disease, dies, it is often said, ‘ It is 
happy for such a one that he is released.’ A dreadful re¬ 
lease !—from earth to hell! 

5. Scarcely two persons run the same road to destruc¬ 
tion ; but there is but one way to happiness. ‘ I am the 
Way,’ saith Christ. 

6. There are some ministers who, if they have given 
their hearers a sip of pure gospel wine, and brought their 
souls into a glowing ardour, immediately throw a gallon 
of cold water upon them, whereby all the flame is quenched; 
or, to vary the metaphor, since the Scripture makes use of 
both (Isa. lv. 1), if they have given them a taste of gospel 
milk, they cannot be satisfied till they have curdled it with 
a pailful of legal vinegar. Such ministers may mean well, 







HILL . 295 


but it will not do : the heart gets hard, guilt cankers the 
conscience, and the obedience which is produced (if there 
be any at all), is at best slavish—never filial. They would 
guard against Antinomianism, whilst in truth they produce 
it, by drawing the flaming sword of the law, and thereby 
‘guarding’ the poor guilty sinner’s free approach to Christ, 

‘ the Tree of Life,’ from whom alone fruit unto holiness is 
to be found. 

7. Watchfulness will not avail without prayer, nor 
prayer without watchfulness. ‘ Watch and pray,’ saith our 
Lord. 

8. Either take Christ or Moses for your husband, for 
you cannot have both. If you are married to Christ, you 
are divorced from the law (that is, as a covenant by which 
you are to be saved, but not as a rule of life); but if you 
are wedded to Moses, you have no part in Christ; and you 
will find Moses to be as bloody an husband as Zipporah 
did of old. 










296 IVOR ns OLD AND NEW. 


HORSLEY. 

BORN 1733—DIED 1806. 

1. Every sentence of the Bible is from God, and every 
man is interested in the meaning of it. 

2. The apostles were, by infinite degrees, the best- 
informed of all philosophers; and the prophets of the 
primitive church were the soundest of all divines. 

3. It is a gross mistake to consider the Sabbath as a 
mere festival of the Jewish Church, deriving its whole 
sanctity from the Levitical law. The abrogation of that 
law no more releases the worshippers of God from the 
observation of the Sabbath, than it cancels the injunctions 
of filial piety, or the prohibitions of theft and murder. 
The Christian stands obliged to the observance of a Sab¬ 
bath. By keeping a Sabbath, we acknowledge a God and 
declare we are not atheists; by keeping one day in seven, 
we protest against idolatry, and acknowledge that God 
who made the heavens and earth; and by keeping our 
Sabbath on the first day of the week, we protest against 
Judaism, and acknowledge that God who, having made the 
world, sent His only begotten Son to redeem mankind. 
The observation of the Sabbath is a public weekly asser¬ 
tion of the two first articles in our creed—the belief in God 
the Father Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth; and 
in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord. 

4. He who forgave the sinner that perfumed His feet; 







HORSLEY. 


He who called Saul the persecutor to be an Apostle of the 
faith j He who from the cross bore the companion of His 
last agonies to Paradise ;— He hath said, ‘ Him that 
cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out.’ 

5. What, then, shall be the joy of those to whom the 
King shall say, 1 1 was an hungered, and ye gave Me 
meat V &c. O rich requital of an easy service ! Love the 
duty; heaven the reward ! Who will not strive to be fore¬ 
most to minister to the necessities of the saints; secure of 
being doubly repaid ;— here, in the delight of doing good ; 
hereafter , in a share of this glorious benediction ! 

6. Every man may be allowed to say that he will not 
believe without sufficient evidence; but none can, without 
great presumption, pretend to stipulate for any particular 
kind of proof, and refuse to attend to any other. 

7. Christ’s body was plainly the mortal body of a man. 
It suffered from hunger, from fatigue, and violence, and 
needed the refection of food, of rest, and sleep. 

8. After His resurrection, He had no longer any local 
residence on earth. He was become the inhabitant of 
another region, from which He came occasionally to con¬ 
verse with His disciples; His visible ascension, being not 
the necessary means of His removal, but a token to His 
disciples that this was His last visit; an evidence to them 
that the heavens had now received Him, and that He was 
to be seen no more on earth till the restitution of all things. 

9. The sudden and universal notoriety that there will be 
of our Saviour’s last glorious advent, is signified by the image 
of the lightning, which, in the same instant, flashes upon 
the eyes of spectators in remote and opposite stations. 








--- 

293 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


BOOTH. 

BORN 1734—DIED 1806. 

1. Preaching the Gospel is proclaiming glad tidings of 
salvation for the guilty. 

2. It is hence apparent, that God, in the bestowment of 
blessings on the children of men, is not influenced by the 
purity of their hearts, the piety of their lives, or the 
worthiness of their characters; but by a regard to His own 
eternal perfection; to the supreme excellence of His own 
revealed name; and to the everlasting honour of His own 
immense goodness. 

3. If the testimony of God to an apostate, guilty, and 
wretched world, concerning His incarnate Son, and rela¬ 
tive to the riches of His own grace, be not a sufficient 
warrant for the most ungodly person upon earth to believe 
in Jesus, it is not easy to conceive of any Divine declara¬ 
tions which could have been made, that would have 
authorised any of those whom the Scriptures call sinners , 
or the guilty in a perishing condition, to believe in Christ. 

4. To consider any man as born of God, but not as a 
child of God; as a child of God, but not as believing in 
Jesus Christ; as believing in Jesus Christ, but not as justi¬ 
fied; or as justified, but not as an heir of immortal felicity; 
is, either to the last degree absurd, or manifestly contrary 
to the apostolic doctrine. 

5. ‘Repent ye, and believe the Gospel.’ This may be 









BOOTH. 


299 

the meaning of the exhortation:—Repent; relinquish all 
your wrong notions, relating to the way and the manner 
of finding acceptance with the Deity. ‘Believe the Gospel;’ 
which opens a most unexpected avenue for the communi¬ 
cation of this blessing; which brings you glad tidings of a 
salvation, fully procured by the incarnate God, and freely 
offered to the unworthy sinner. 

6. Is the heavy-laden sinner invited to Christ? it is, not 
as qualified by being burdened, but as guilty and perish¬ 
ing, that he must apply to the Saviour; taking all his 
encouragement so to do, from the testimony of God con¬ 
cerning Jesus. 

7. Does any one ask, What is my warrant for believing 
in Jesus Christ? The answer is, not anything done by 
you, not anything wrought in you; but the word of grace, 
or the testimony of God concerning Jesus. 

8. Faith in the blood of Jesus, and that peace which is 
connected with it, far from stupefying the believer’s con¬ 
science, render it more sensible to that which is evil, more 
awake to the secret operations of innate corruption, and 
more jealous of his own heart. 

9. You make no profession. The reason is, I presume, 
you have nothing, of experimental Christianity, to profess. 
No faith, for instance, in the blood of Jesus; no ‘repent¬ 
ance from dead works;’ no love to God; no subjection of 
conscience to the authority of Christ; and, therefore, un¬ 
regenerate, dead in sin, and under the curse of a broken 
law. You make no profession. But does that supersede 
the dominion of God over you, or the authority of His 
precepts, and leave you to live as you please ? 








300 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


'MILNER (JOSEPH). 

BORN 1744—DIED 1797. 

1. The church has arms which the men of the world 
understand not. 

2. The little success at Athens evinces that a spirit of 
literary trifling in religion, where all is theory and the con¬ 
science unconcerned, hardens the heart effectually. 

3. Omnipotent energy alone can produce or preserve 
true holiness. 

4. To believe, to suffer, to love, not to write, was the 
primitive taste. 

5. The first Christians, with the purest charity to the 
perso?is of heretics, gave their errors no quarter. 

6. It should ever be remembered that Christian light 
stands single and unmixed, and will not bear to be 
kneaded into the same mass with other systems, religious 
or philosophical. 

7. The primitive Christians knew the doctrine of the 
election of grace, but not the self-determining power of the 
human will. 

8. Beware of philosophy, is a precept which as much 
calls for our attention now as ever. 

9. The notions of proud philosophers vary in different 
ages; but they seldom fail in some form or other to with¬ 
stand the religion of Jesus. 

10. A Trinitarian speculatist may be as worldly-minded 






MILNER. 


301 


as any other; his doctrine , however, contains that which 
alone can make a man fix his affections on things above. 

11. Persecution frequently does in this life, in part, what 
the last day will do completely, separate wheat from tares. 

12. An artificial and polished arrangement of sentences 
is lost upon a vulgar audience; and those who affect it are, 
it is to be feared, little moved themselves with the import¬ 
ance of divine things, and are far more solicitous for their 
own character as speakers than for the spiritual profit of 
their hearers. 

13. What a number of elaborate sermons have been 
preached to no purpose ! Even the truth that is in them 
is rendered, in a great measure, useless, by the wisdom of 
words with which it is clothed ; while plain, colloquial 
addresses to the populace, by men fearing God, and 
speaking of divine things in fervour and charity, has been 
attended with the demonstration of the Spirit; and souls 
have been rescued from sin and Satan. 






3° 2 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


CECIL (RICHARD). 

BORN 1748—DIED 1810. 

1. The blessed man is he who is under education in 
God’s school, where he endures chastisement, and by 
chastisement is instructed. 

2. A stubborn and rebellious mind in a Christian must 
be kept low by dark and trying dispensations. 

3. We cannot build too confidently on the merits of 
Christ as our only hope ; nor can we think too much of the 
mind that was in Christ as our great example. 

4. If you have set out in the ways of God, do not stumble 
at present difficulties. Go forward. Look not behind. 

5. The history of all the. great characters of the Bible is 
summed up in this one sentence :—They acquainted them¬ 
selves with God, and acquiesced in His will in all things. 

6. The most likely method we can take to hasten the 
removal of what we love, is, to value it too much; to think 
on it with endless anxiety; to live on its favour with soli¬ 
citude. It shall soon either become a thorn in our side, 
or be taken away. 

7. A Christian will find his parenthesis for prayer, even 
through his busiest hours. 

8. God is omniscient as well as omnipotent: and 
omniscience may see reason to withhold what omnipotence 
could bestow. 

9. A Christian has advanced but a little way in religion 







CECIL. 303 


when he has overcome the love of the world; for he has 
still more powerful and importunate enemies: self—evil 
tempers—pride—undue affections—a stubborn will. It is 
by the subduing of these adversaries that we must chiefly 
judge of our growth in grace. 

10. What we call ‘taking steps in life’ are most serious 
occurrences ; especially if there be in the motive any mix¬ 
ture of ambition. ‘ Wherefore gaddest thou about to change 
thy way ? ’ 

11. Remember always to mix good sense with good 
things, or they will become disgusting. 

12. It is always a sign of poverty of mind when men are 
ever aiming to appear great; for they who are really great 
never seem to know it. 

13. How many people go out of their sphere under 
good pretences! 

14. Whatever, below God, is the object of our love, will, 
at some time or other, be the matter of our sorrow. 

15. A Christian must stand in a posture to receive every 
message which God shall send. He must be so prepared 
as to be like one who is called to set off on a sudden 
journey, and has nothing to do but to set out at a moment’s 
notice ; or like a merchant who has goods to send abroad, 
and has them all packed up and in readiness for the first 
sail. 

—= 1 °—°§ s "“ 




304 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


JONES (THOMAS S., D.D., EDINBURGH). 

BORN 1754—DIED 1837. 

1. In matters of religion, all the doctrines which men 
are required to believe, and all the duties which they are 
commanded to perform, are contained in the Bible ; and 
if anything is taught or enjoined which is not found in, or 
fairly deducible from, the doctrines and precepts of the 
sacred volume, it is an imposition, and ought to be re¬ 
jected. 

2. Faith cannot be separated from holiness, nor holiness 
from faith; and, should the separation be attempted, 
neither holiness nor faith can be attained. 

3. The law of God is a charter of rights. With the pre¬ 
servation of that charter, everything dear to God and valu¬ 
able to man is eternally connected. To permit the law to 
bend to the criminal here, would be attended with conse¬ 
quences of injustice, fatal beyond all calculation. 

4. Genuine repentance flows from the cross of Christ. 

5. The cross of Christ, mildly, regularly, and constantly, 
influences the understanding by the conviction of its truth. 
It engages the heart by the immensity of the divine good¬ 
ness and grace; it directs and enforces the conduct of all 
who feel its influence, by the persuasion of duty, propriety, 
and interest. 

6. Study the doctrine of the cross : believe it, and it will 
take off your chains; it will open the prison-house of Satan. 





JONES. 


305 


7. The sufferings of Christ exhibited, in a new and more 
amiable light, the divine character,—threw a lustre around 
the works of providence and grace before unknown, and 
kindled new and transcendent glories both in earth and 
heaven. 

8. It must be the highest degree of presumption in 
mortals to attempt to limit either the power of the grace 
of God or the virtue of the death of Christ. 

9. A religion without feeling must be a religion without 
faith, without hope, without peace, without comfort, with¬ 
out piety, without devotion, without morals, without love 
to God or love to mankind. 

10. Despised and scorned as the repentance of a sinner 
is, by the proud and hardened infidel, that event is, in the 
estimation of glorified spirits, an object of great magnitude 
and importance. It is a new creation, from which are 
reflected new illustrations of the wisdom, power, mercy, 
grace, and goodness of God. It is a resurrection of the 
dead in sin to an endless life of holiness and glory. 

11. Trial is intended to discover what is in man; to shew 
his strength or his weakness, his virtue or his vice, his 
religion or his irreligion. 




u 











306 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


LOVE (DR). 

BORN 1757—DIED 1825. 

1. True love to Christ, though it begins in, and is excited 
by, a sight of His suitableness to us (Heb. vi. 18), yet does 
not terminate here ; but is led up thereby to rest ultimately 
in Him for what He is in Himself. 

2. The fourth petition of the Lord’s Prayer sounds like 
the language of pilgrims and strangers seeking their sus¬ 
tenance in this foreign land from day to day. 

3. God loves not only a hearty and generous giver 
(2 Cor. ix. 7), but a hearty and generous receiver; that is, 
one who accounts the God he pleads with to be such a 
giver. The glory of His perfections is much more acknow¬ 
ledged by such a person than by others. 

4. The great sight at the last day will be God looking out 
of the eyes of flesh. 

5. ‘So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that 
runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy’ (Rom. ix. r6). 
It is as if the apostle had said, ‘ When you see a man 
willing and running, reflect that this willing and running 
do not come from the man himself, as the author of these, 
but from God who sheweth mercy to him.’ 

6. The divine dominion is founded on God’s matchless 
excellences. 

7. What if heaven and hell be set in the centre of the 
universe as the Shechinah of the divine glory, to be beheld 





LOVE. 


307 


by innumerable worlds of upright intelligence, who have 
never been put into a, state of probation, that they may 
thereby be instructed in the perfections of the divine nature. 

8. Every man has something that he rests on for obtain¬ 
ing justification and happiness. Faith is his putting Christ 
instead of that; his so coming to Christ, and to rest upon 
Him, as to abandon it. 

9. Faith has co?ifidence in its nature, otherwise we could 
not have ‘ access with confidence by the faith of Christ.’ 

10. Stillness of spirit is like the canvas for the Holy 
Spirit to draw His various graces upon. 

11. Observe how frequently the work of sanctification 
is ascribed to God under the title 4 The God of peace.’ 

12. We ought to beware of speaking against loving 
Christ for His benefits; for the glory of God is eminently 
displayed in those benefits; and it is in these that He 
Himself is manifested to us. Observe with what compla¬ 
cency the apostle speaks of ‘ the unsearchable riches of 
Christ’ (Eph. iii. 8); and how he gives thanks on behalf 
of the Colossians for ‘the hope which is laid up’ for them 
in heaven (Col. i. 3, 5). Observe, too, the language of 
the prodigal: ‘How many hired servants of my father’s 
have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger’ 
(Luke xv. 17). And see the Lord’s own invitations : Isa. 
lv. 1-3 ; John v. 40, &c. Christ Himself may really be 
loved for His divine excellences which appear in His 
gracious actings towards us. 









WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


3°S 


STEWART (DR ALEXANDER). 

BORN 1764—DIED 1821. 

1. Faith is credit given to a declaration or assertion, on 
the authority of the person who makes it, whether that 
assertion be directly expressed or only implied. When 
our Lord said to the nobleman of Capernaum, ‘ Thy son 
liveth; the man believed the wo?'d that Jesus had spoken, 
and went his way,’ confident that he would find his son 
alive and well. When Jesus said to the blind man, ‘Go, 
wash in the pool of Siloam,’ the man believed the assurance 
implied in our Lord’s injunction, that he would by this 
means receive his sight; ‘ therefore he went his way, and 
washed, and came again seeing.’ 

2. If the thing declared and proposed to our faith be a 
matter of no importance, and fitted to excite no interest, 
the belief of it will produce no sensible effect, and will 
admit of no direct evidence. An observer cannot discover 
whether the thing reported meets with credit or not. But 
if the matter asserted appear to be of importance, it will, 
when believed, excite emotion, and perhaps prompt to 
action. If not believed, whatever be its importance, it will 
produce neither action nor emotion. The unequivocal 
expression of the emotions, accompanying the belief of an 
interesting declaration, or the action prompted by such 
belief, is the outward evidence of faith. 

3 - Faith in Christ, in respect of its reality and efficacy, 

















STEWART. 


may.be called living faith; whereas its counterfeit, which 
can have no efficacy, is properly called dead faith. This 
dead, or unproductive faith, is not a different kind of faith 
from the true; it is, strictly speaking, not faith at all, even 
as a counterfeit piece of money is not money, or as a dead 
man is no man. 

4. To ‘live by faith/ or ‘walk by faith/ is to have the 
life regulated by a habitual prevailing regard to those 
doctrines and invisible realities which are revealed to us in 
Scripture. A person may be said to live a life of faith, 
when the influence of spiritual, invisible objects prevails 
in regulating his judgment, his affections, and his conduct. 

5. There cannot be a more direct proof of the inveterate 
blindness and hardness of the human heart than this,— 
that we do not believe many things which God declares, 
even when we are convinced that it is He that speaks. 
Yet, that this is the fact, we are assured by Him who 
knows what is in man, and who cannot lie. One cannot 
conceive more audacious impiety than thus to discredit 
the God of truth, and, in effect, to ‘ make Him/— i.e., to 
treat Him as if He were,—‘a liar.’ 

6. Though there is much guilt and depravity in unbelief, 
it does not follow that there is any merit in faith. A 
man cannot claim reward for simply believing that to be 
true which he knows God has affirmed. So that, when 
our justification is made to depend on our believing the 
truth, nothing can more expressly preclude every plea of 
merit on our part. ‘ It is of faith, that it might be by grace.’ 













WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


HALL (ROBERT). 

BORN 1764—DIED 1831. 

i 

1. I hope I am not censorious; but I am persuaded that 
much of the liberality so much talked of, is rather a 
fashionable cant, than any genuine candour of heart. 

2. Lax notions of the person of Christ, a forgetfulness 
of His mediation, place the mind in a deistical state, and 
prepare it for the most licentious opinions. 

3. O my friend, what an infinity of time I have lost; 
and how ardently do I long to do something, which shall 
convince the world I have not lived in vain! 

4. I am afraid a vicious taste is gaining ground, both 
among preachers and hearers; all glare and paint, little to 
the understanding, and nothing to the heart. 

5. I have serious apprehensions, that the ostentatious 
spirit, which is fast pervading all denominations of 
Christians in the present times, will draw down the frown 
of the Great Head of the Church, whose distinguishing 
characteristic was humility. He did not strive, nor cry, 
nor cause His voice to be heard in the street. 

6. To pray immediately to Christ, to cast ourselves 
upon His power and grace, appears to me the best anti¬ 
dote to despondency. I have no doubt we are much 
wanting to ourselves, in not having more direct dealings 
with the Saviour, or not addressing Him in the same spirit 
in which He was applied to for the relief of bodily disease. 







HALL . 311 

7. A Christian should look upon himself as something 
sacred and devoted. For that which involves but an 
ordinary degree of criminality in others, in him partakes 
of the nature of sacrilege; what is a breach of trust in 
others, is, in him, the profanation of a temple. 

8. The wheels of nature are not made to roll backward; 
everything presses on towards eternity; from the birth of 
time an impetuous current has set in, which bears all the 
sons of men to that interminable ocean. Meanwhile, 
heaven is attracting to itself whatever is congenial to its 
nature, is enriching itself with the spoils of earth, and 
collecting within its capacious bosom whatever is pure, 
permanent, and Divine, leaving nothing for the last fire to 
consume, but the objects and the slaves of concupiscence; 
while everything which grace has prepared and beautified, 
shall be gathered and selected from the world, to adorn 
that eternal city which hath no need of the sun, neither of 
the moon, to shine in it. 

9. Prayer touches the only spring that can insure success. 
By speaking, we move man; but by prayer, we move God. 

10. He who has given His spirit, will never suffer His 
work to be stopped by the want of the riches of the earth; 
He will sooner turn the very stones of the street into the 
precious metals, than suffer the means to be wanted of 
carrying on this work. 

n. Never did the mighty God more fully display the 
greatness of His power, than when He shewed Himself 
mighty to save to the uttermost. 

12. You have taken hold of nothing, you have grasped only 
shadows, if you have not taken hold of Christ, your Life. 






312 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


HALDANE (ROBERT). 

BORN 1764—DIED 1842. 

1. All religions but that of the Bible, share the glory of 
recovering men to happiness between God and the sinner. 
All false views of the gospel do the same thing. The 
Bible alone makes the salvation of guilty men terminate 
in the glory of God as its chief end. Can there be a more 
convincing evidence that the Bible is from God ? 

2. The expression ‘dead to sin’ (Rom. vi. 2) has no 
reference whatever to the character of believers, but ex¬ 
clusively to their state before God, as the ground on which 
their sanctification is secured. 

3. The believer is one with Christ as truly as he was 
one with Adam; he dies with Christ as truly as he died 
with Adam. Christ’s righteousness is his as truly as 
Adam’s sin was his. 

4. Jesus Christ suffered the penalty of sin, and ceased 
to bear it. Till His death He had sin upon Him; and, 
therefore, though it was not committed by Him, yet it was 
His own, inasmuch as He took it on Him. When He 
died on account of sin He died to it, as He was now for 
ever justified from it. He was not justified from it till His 
death, but from that moment He was dead to it. When 
He shall appear the second time, it shall be without sin. 

5. Unless we keep in mind that we are dead to sin and 
alive unto God, we cannot serve Him as we ought. 






HALDANE. 313 


6. The freedom from the moral law which the believer 
enjoys, is a freedom from an obligation to fulfil it in his 
own person for his justification. But this is quite consis¬ 
tent with the eternal obligation of the moral law as a rule 
of life to the Christian. 

7. It is not the first end of law to curse men, but only 
what it demands since the entrance of sin. Such is the 
right of the law. 

8. Christ was made under the law; but it was a broken 
law; and consequently He was made under its curse. 

9. A good conscience is a conscience discharged from 
sin by the blood of Christ. 

10. How can there be love without a sense of recon¬ 
ciliation with God; and how can the fruits of joy and 
peace be brought forth till the conscience is discharged 
from guilt % 

11. Doubts of a personal interest in Christ are evi¬ 
dences cither of little faith or of no faith. 

12. The creation, which, on account of the sin of man, 
has been subjected to vanity, shall be rescued from the 
present degraded condition under which it groans ; and, 
according to the hope held out to it, is longing to partici¬ 
pate with the sons of God in that freedom from vanity 
into which it shall at length be introduced, partaking with 
them in their future and glorious deliverance from all 
evil. 

13. The heavens and the earth will pass through the 
fire, but only that they may be purified, and come forth 
anew, more excellent than before. 





314 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


FOSTER. 

BORN 1770—DIED 1843. 

1. Sometimes prayer is delayed from the sense of recent 
guilt. No wonder there should be an indisposition then. 
But will time wear the guilt away ? And what will be the 
best security against renewed sin 1 Do not defer praying 
till more guilt come between. Do not, lest death come 
between! 

2. How marvellous and how lamentable that the soul 
can consent to stay in the dust, when invited above the 
stars ! 

3. God is transcendently worthy of all love and devo¬ 
tion, the infinite perfection of all excellences united. 

4. Does this dead stillness of conscience appear an 
awful situation ? Why % Because we foresee that it will 
awake; and with an intensity of life and power propor¬ 
tioned to this long sleep, as if it had been growing 
gigantic during its slumber ! It will rise up with all that 
superiority of vigour with which the body will rise at the 
resurrection. It will awake ! Probably in the last hours 
of life; but if not then, it will nevertheless awake at the 
last day! 

5. Let us seek that our consciences may ever be in the 
divine keeping rather than our own. 

6. Life is expenditure. We have it but as continually 
losing it; we have no use of it but as continually wasting it. 







FOSTER. 315 


7. That fire (of the great day) will leave no more con¬ 
troversies to be decided between God and false divinities. 
It will be a funeral flame, as to the dominion of the power 
of evil in this world; but, like Elijah’s fire, it will not be 
lighted tilt all is ready for the sacrifice. 

8. This peitinacious going forth of the soul to God, as 
granting pardon and justification through Jesus Christ— 
this is the essential thing. 

9. Do justice to the divine mercy, by believing its 
thousandfold declarations and promises. 

10. An interval of more than forty years makes all the 
difference between the morning of life and its evening. 
What a solemn and mighty difference it is, that whereas 
we then beheld life before us, we now behold death. 

11. We must think daily of holding ourselves in readi¬ 
ness for setting off on the last great journey. 



/ 





316 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


COLERIDGE . 

BORN 1772—DIED 1834. 

1. Tertullian had good reason for his assertion that the 
simplest Christian, if indeed a Christian, knows more than 
the most accomplished irreligious philosopher. 

2. I am not ashamed to confess that I dislike the fre¬ 
quent use of the word virtue , instead of righteousness , in 
the pulpit; and that in prayer or preaching before a Chris¬ 
tian community it sounds too much like Pagan philosophy. 

3. Truths, of all others the most awful and interesting, 
are too often considered as so time that they lose all the 
power of truth, and lie bed-ridden in the dormitory of the 
soul, side by side with the most despised and exploded 
errors. 

4. The doctrine of election is in itself a necessary in¬ 
ference from an undeniable fact; necessary, at least, for all 
who hold that the best of men are what they are through 
the grace of God. 

5. From what you know of yourself, of your own heart 
and strength, dare you trust to it. 

6. Christianity is not a theory or a speculation, but a life; 
not a philosophy of life, but a life and a living process. 

7. The gospel is not a system of theology, nor a syn¬ 
tagma of theoretical propositions. It is a history, a series 
of facts and events related and announced. These do 
indeed involve, or rather I should say, they at the same 






COLERIDGE. 317 

time are most important doctrinal truths, but still they are 
facts and declaration of facts. 

8. A Christian cannot speak or think as if his redemp¬ 
tion by the blood, and his j ustification by the righteousness 
of Christ alone, were future or contingent events, but must 
both say and think, I have hee?i redeemed, I am justified. 

9. Here is a sacrifice, a sin-offering, and a High Priest 
who is indeed a Mediator; who, not in type or shadow, 
but in very truth, and in His own right, stands in the 
place of man to God, and of God to man ; and who re¬ 
ceives as a Judge what He offered as an Advocate. 

10. The agent and personal cause of the redemption of 
mankind is the co-eternal Word and only-begotten Son of 
the living God, incarnate, tempted, agonizing, crucified, 
submitting to death, resurgent, communicant of His Spirit, 
ascendant, and obtaining for His church the descent and 
communion of the Holy Spirit the Comforter. 

11. I believe Moses, I believe Paul; but I believe in 
Christ. 

12. Sin is the disease. What is the remedy ? Charity % 
Pshaw !— Charity is the health, the state to be obtained 
by the use of the remedy, not the sovereign balm itself. 
Faith of grace, faith in the God-manhood, the cross, the 
mediation, the perfected righteousness of Jesus, to the 
utter rejection and objunction of all righteousness of our 
own,—faith alone is the restorative. The Romish scheme 
is preposterous ; it puts the rill before the spring. Faith 
is the source, charity, that is, the whole Christian life, is 
the stream from it. 














318 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


HOW ELS. 

BORN 1778—DIED 1832. 

1. Man is not only bad, but bad enough to rival even 
the devil in wickedness. 

2. All the malice of men and devils cannot make him 
miserable whom Christ makes happy. 

3. Christ is life; others only live. 

4. God has His universities in this lower world. Here 
He educates His family. Here they graduate. The Son 
of God Himself studied here below; and here He was 
qualified to assume the reins of universal government. 

5. Some have taken more pains to win hell than it has 
cost martyrs to win a crown of glory in heaven. 

6. The wicked have two hells ; one in time, and the 
other in eternity. 

7. When God means to make a creature happy, He 
makes Him obedient. 

8. As a nation, what have we done? We have cherished 
in our bosoms the serpent Popery; and it is at the present 
moment endeavouring to sting us to death. 

9. Happy is the man who is drawn by prosperity to 
God. 

10. If you would trace your inability to its source, you 
must trace it to an indisposition strengthened by ten thou¬ 
sand acts of sin. 

11. I am disposed to think I shall be more grateful to 









HOW ELS. 319 


God in heaven for the bitterest than for the sweetest dispen¬ 
sations here on earth. 

12. It is the invitation of Christ which gives you a right 
to approach Him. 

13. Do not trifle with sin. 

14. Triumph over your feelings—by faith ! 

15. Do not be content with swimming on the surface of 
divine truth; make it your element; dive into it. 

16. He who is weary of God will soon make a hell for 
himself, even in this world. 

17. Unworthy as you are, no one is worthy of your heart 
but God. Give it to Him wholly and unreservedly. 

18. If you seek Christ, carry nothing with you. All you 
need in life, in death, and for eternity, is to be found in 
Him. 

19. Do you only pray for yourself? You have never 
yet prayed aright. 







WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


320 


SCHIMMELPENNINCK. 

BORN 1778—DIED 1856. 

1. There are two sorts of prayer: one, grounded on the 
word and promises of God, asking for particular things; 
the other, a groaning which cannot be uttered—a sense of 
the superincumbent weight of death and bondage upon 
creation, when the Spirit helps our infirmities—a cry of 
misery like that of the Israelites in Egypt. Our Lord 
knew both sorts. He prayed for specific objects; He 
groaned in spirit at the grave of Lazarus. 

2. We too much regard God as one to go to when it 
pleases us, instead of as one whose active energy and love 
are ever operating upon us. 

3. Heaven begins when faith in Christ drops the seed 
of eternal life into the soul; increases when the soul quits 
the body; is perfected when, at the Lord’s coming, it is 
united to a glorified body. 

4. The atonement is received by faith ; righteousness 
by union with Christ. Reconciliation or peace is through 
the Son; the perception of sin through the Spirit. The 
Spirit never gives peace but as He reveals the Son. 

5. There is a great resemblance between the Epistle to 
the Ephesians and that to the Colossians; yet is there this 
difference :—the Apostle in the Ephesians speaks of the 
Church as the fulness of Christ, and in the Colossians 
speaks of Christ as the fulness of the Church. 

















SCHIMMELPENNINCK. 


321 


6. The abiding conviction that we are the Lord’s, pro¬ 
duces that holiness, love, spirituality, and nearness to 
God, which is the Christian’s privilege. The joy of 
knowing you are the Lord’s, stimulates and strengthens. 
Seek, then, in your own experience, to make your calling 
and election sure. The assurance of faith is the well 
from which sanctification flows. 

7. The Lord is always a sanctuary or hiding-place to 
His children; in every place, in every company, they may 
hide in the secret of His presence from the strife of 
tongues about them. Better never enter into society, even 
into that of Christians, than go without taking our hiding- 
place with us. 

8. The lowest possible view that a Christian can take, 
is seeking to be saved. We should wish to be with Jesus, 
to be in His love, to glorify Him, to witness for Him. 

9. Though Christ was- a Son, yet learned He obedience 
by the things which He suffered. In any instance that 
we give up our own will without sacrificing conscience, we 
are gainers. If but my dog exercise my patience, and 
make me yield my will to his, he is a blessing to me. 

10. Look to the blood of Jesus for pardoning grace; to 
the high priesthood of Jesus for sustaining grace; to the 
glory of Jesus for animating and strengthening grace. 
Christ imparts His fulness not at once, but in detail. He 
imparts life at once in a sense of pardon, but builds up 
into His likeness by bringing home the details of His life 
and character. 

11. Hagar enters the wilderness with a bottle of water, 
given by Abraham. A mere bottle of water, though filled 


x 







322 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


from the source and given by a believer, is no provision 
for the wilderness. We must have the well itself, and this 
was near Hagar all the time; but it was only when God 
opened her eyes that she saw it. She never knew her 
need of the well till the bottle was expended. Nor do we 
see the necessity of the living water till the tanks of our 
own righteousness, or of notions learnt from others, are 
found to fail. 

12. True faith is the grave of anxiety, as of unbelief. 

13. It is of much more consequence to our peace to love 
others, than to know that they love us. 





















CHALMERS. 323 


CHALMERS (DR). 

BORN 1780—DIED 1847. 

1. It is quite competent to believe, even in the duller 
and darker frames of the mind; for belief does not look 
inwardly upon the frames, but stays itself by looking out¬ 
wardly upon the word. 

2. There is a great running after ministers in our day, 
and this argues a desire of something or other ; —but, 
desire of what ? Is it to be regaled by the eloquence of 
the preacher? Is it because you are lured by the report 
of his high and far-sounding popularity? Is it because 
you want a feast for your imagination or your intellect, or 
any of your sensibilities? That is not a desirousness 
which will help you forward, but rather prove an impedi¬ 
ment in the way of your salvation. 

3. A believing view of eternity would absorb all our 
griefs and all our provocations. 

4. The righteousness of Christ imputed to those who 
believe, is a phrase so familiar that it loses its impression. 
But hearken diligently to this joyful intimation, and your 
soul shall live : Your sin put to Christ’s account, and His 
righteousness put to your account, totally alter your rela¬ 
tion with God. 

5. My God, spiritualise my affection! Give me to 
know what it is to have the intense and passionate love of 

Christ. 

/ 













WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


324 


6. I long for mutual and confiding intercourse. May 
He no longer be lightly esteemed by me, but as altogether 
lovely! I desire to feast with Him, and Him with me. I 
would sit down with great delight under the canopy of His 
Mediatorship, rejoicing in the abundance of peace and love. 

7. God is both the Rock of salvation, and the Monarch 
of heaven and earth. 

8. We are called upon to be joyful, because God 
cometh in judgment. It will be a day of terror to the 
wicked, but of triumph and establishment to the righteous, 
when the new heavens and new earth shall emerge from 
the wrecks of an older economy. On that day may we 
be counted worthy to stand before the Son of man ! 

9. Let us wait in faith for the coming of the Son of 
God. Let us, in the faith of the Gospel, both rejoice and 
work righteousness. 

10. I would learn of Thy holy oracles. I would take 
the sayings of the Bible simply and purely as they are, and 
exercise myself on the trueness of these sayings. 

11. Let me believe in the midst of heaviness. Let me 
believe in the dark. 

12. We do not steady a ship by fixing the anchor on 
aught that is within the vessel. The anchorage must be 
without. And so of the soul, when resting, not on what 
it sees in itself, but on what it sees in the character of 
God, the certainty of His truth, the impossibility of His 
falsehood. 

13. Yet come the enlargement when it will, it must come, 
after all, through the channel of a simple credence given to 
the sayings of God, accounted as true and faithful sayings. 






NETTLE! ON. 


NETTLE TON. 

BORN 1783—DIED 1844. 

1. Zeal without prudence will defeat its own end. 
Zeal, untempered with love and compassion for souls, will 
soon degenerate into harshness and cruelty of manner and 
expression, which will have no other effect on an audience 
than scolding, or even profane swearing. 

2. The uplifted arm of vengeance is yet stayed. The 
collected wrath yet waits a moment. A voice from the 
mercy-seat, a warning voice, is heard. The Saviour calls. 
Haste then, O sinner, haste to Christ, the only refuge from 
the storm. Then, safe from the fear of evil, at a distance 
you shall only hear the thunders roll; while pardon, and 
peace, and eternal life are yours. 

3. You may destroy the sinner’s earthly plans, break up 
all his interest in the concerns of time, fill his mind with 
all the solemn realities of death, judgment, and eternity, 
bring him under the most powerful convictions of sin, and 
the selfish principle may be more active than ever, in 
building up a righteousness, or in quarrelling with God 
about the terms of salvation. 

4. It is sometimes taken for granted that, if the sinner 
had clear views of the character of God, he would love 
Him. But facts prove the contrary. Sinners in the last 
stages of conviction, who have lost all interest in the con¬ 
cerns of time,—sinners, too, on a dying bed, who care 
nothing for the world, feel more opposition than ever. 







326 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 

5. Sinners, must I leave you where I found you, unre¬ 
conciled to God? Your business is not with a fellow- 
mortal. I have done; and the whole remains to be 
settled between God and your own souls. However hard 
you may think this message, it is not mine. God beseeches, 
God commands your compliance now. And will you 
raise your feeble arm to oppose ? God is on the throne; 
and have you an arm like God ? However opposed you 
may be, yet God is on the throne, and what can you do ? 

6. And now all things are ready; and God is inviting 
and beseeching you to accept his message. What is the 
reply of your heart ? Do you not like the terms of this 
treaty? You are required only to be reconciled to God. 
What can be more reasonable than this ? Is it hard that 
you should be required to love God, to feel sorrow for sin, 
to confess and forsake it ? Is this hard, or is sin so lovely 
and desirable that it appears hard and unreasonable that 
you should be required to hate it with all your heart? 

7. Is sin so noble a thing in itself, and so desirable in 
its consequences, that you cannot part with it ? that you 
will lay down your life, your eternal life, for its sake? 
Your love of sin is all the excuse you have, or can have. 
Or, will you plead your inability ? What! cannot be 
reconciled to God! camiot feel sorrow for sin ! cannot 
cease to rebel against the King of heaven! What an 
acknowledgment is this ! Out of thine own mouth wilt 
thou be condemned. If, indeed, you are so opposed to 
God that you cannot feel sorrow for sin, this is the very 
reason why you ought to be condemned. The harder it is 
for you to repent and love God, the more wicked you are. 







PAYS OAT. 


PA YSON. 

BORN 1783—DIED 1827. 

1. Look back to the time when you imagined your¬ 
selves to be convinced of sin, and say whether you were 
then convinced, or whether you have at any time since 
been convinced, of the exceeding sinfulness of unbelief 
If not, there is great reason to fear that you are deceived, 
that you have mistaken the form for the power of godli¬ 
ness. 

2. If there is one fact, or doctrine, or promise in the 
Bible, which has produced no practical effect upon your 
temper or conduct, be assured that you do not truly 
believe it. 

3. The Bible tells us that an enemy came and sowed 
tares. Now, if any man chooses to go further than this, 
and inquire where the enemy got the tares, he is welcome 
to do so; but I choose to leave it where the Bible leaves 
it. I do not wish to be wise above what is written. 

4. If with a careful and enlightened eye we trace the 
path of a numerous church, we shall find it strewed with 
the fallen, the fainting, the slumbering, and the dead, who 
set out in their own strength, and have been stopped, 
ensnared, and overthrown by various obstacles and enemies. 

5. The symptoms of spiritual decline are like those 
which attend the decay of bodily health. It generally 
commences with loss of appetite, and a disrelish for 






328 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


spiritual food, prayer, reading the Scriptures, and devotional 
books. Whenever you perceive these symptoms, be 
alarmed, for your spiritual health is in danger; apply 
immediately to the Great Physician for a cure. 

6. Unless we strenuously aim at universal holiness, we 
can have no satisfactory evidence that we are the servants 
of Christ. A servant of Christ is one who obeys Christ as 
his master, and makes Christ’s revealed word the rule of 
his conduct. No man then can have any evidence that 
he is a servant of Christ any further than he obeys the will 
of Christ. And no man can have any evidence that he 
obeys the will of Christ in one particular, unless he 
sincerely and strenuously aims to obey it in every par¬ 
ticular—for the will of Christ is one. 

7. God commands all men to repent. Christians have 
enough to repent of daily; and if they are not in a 
penitent frame, they justify impenitent sinners. 

8. Let your Great Physician heal you in his own way. 
Only follow His directions, and take the medicine which 
He prescribes, and then quietly leave the result with 
Him. 

9. To a person who had been frustrated in a benevolent 
design : ‘ I congratulate you, and anticipate your eventual 
success. I do not recollect ever to have succeeded in 
anything of importance, in which I did not meet with 
some rebuff, at the commencement.’ 

10. Anticipated sorrows are harder to bear than real 
ones, because Christ does not support us under them. In 
every slough we may see the footsteps of Christ’s flock 
who have gone before us. 





BROWN. 


329 


BROWN (DR JOHN). 

BORN 1785—DIED 1858. 

1. By far the greater part of mankind are ‘without 
hope.’ A large proportion of them have no faith , and 
where there is no faith, there can be no hope; and there 
are not a few who, though they have a species of faith (of 
which they would very willingly get quit if they knew but 
how), have yet no hope. They know that, whatever they 
may have to fear from death, and judgment, and eternity, 
they have nothing to hope from them, and therefore they 
do not believe and hope; but, like the demons under 
whose influence they act, ‘ they believe and tremble.’ 

2. Habitual unholiness is a stronger proof that a man’s 
hopes, whatever they be, do not rest on the faith of the 
truth, than anything wearing the form of evidence, which 
can be brought forward on the other side. 

3. It is dreadful to think what multitudes, under the 
influence of these delusive hopes, contrive not only to live, 
but even to die, without much disquietude in reference to 
the interests of their eternity; continue till the last, ‘saying, 
Peace, peace, to themselves, while there is no peace’; ‘go 
down to the grave with a lie in their right hand ’; ascertain 
the reality and extent of their mistake when it is too late 
to rectify it, and first ‘ read their sentence at the flames of 
hell!’ Alas! could the secrets of eternity be made audible 
to the ears of flesh, how often, in the hour of death, would 




WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


be heard, in quick and awful succession, from the darkness 
in which the parted spirit has evanished, the shriek of sur¬ 
prise, the groan of despair ! 

4. The ground of the sinner’s hope is in God alone. 
That ground is sometimes represented to be the sovereign, 
self-moved benignity of God; at other times the obedience 
to death of His incarnate only-begotten Son; and, at other 
times, the untrammelled revelation of mercy in ‘ the word 
of the truth of the gospel.’ 

5. The ground of the sinner’s hope never varies. It is 
‘ the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.’ The ground of 
the hopes of the accomplished saint, who, by the word, 
and providence, and Spirit of God, has been made meet 
for that inheritance on which he is just about to enter, is 
precisely the same as when a hopelessly lost sinner, driven 
from all the false confidences in which he had been accus¬ 
tomed to seek and find shelter, ‘ he fled for refuge to lay 
hold on the hope set before him in the gospel,’ and found 
it. Our first hope is our last hope : 4 the beginning of our 
confidence’ is the end of our confidence. 

6. Believing the gospel and absolute despair of salva¬ 
tion are plainly incompatible states of mind. A man may 
believe what men falsely call the gospel, and what he mis¬ 
takenly thinks the gospel, and yet remain a stranger to the 
hope of eternal life. A man may think that he believes 
what is really the gospel, while he only speculates about it, 
and remain a stranger to the hope of eternal life. But the 
real gospel cannot be really believed without, in the degree 
in which it is believed, producing hope. 






EVANS. 


331 


E VANS (RE V. 7. H.). 

BORN 1785—DIED 1849. 

1. Guilt upon the conscience always leads away from 
God. 

2. The shining of God’s face upon His child is a sub¬ 
stitute for every loss. 

3. Be great students of the cross of Christ; it is the 
great means of resisting Satan. 

4. You will find Him an unfading flower in a fading 
world. 

5. There is no rest but in Jesus. 

6. The dimmest eye that ever looked at the brazen ser¬ 
pent has eternal life. 

7. Faith is not sense, nor sight, nor reason; but a taking 
God at His word. 

8. What strengthens faith 7 Secret prayer; close deal¬ 
ings with conscience over the blood of atonement. 

9. That is the most absolute faith which trusts God in 
the dark. 

10. Our aim is not to preach nicely arranged essays; 
we have to do with man’s conscience, with heaven and 
hell, with God and salvation. 

11. How is faith strengthened ? By being much exer¬ 
cised with the object of faith. 

12. The only plank between the believer and destruc¬ 
tion is the blood of the Incarnate God. 




















332 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


13. A sense of God’s love in the soul will make a man 
of a tender conscience. 

14. Our gospel is a free-grace gospel; it is to him that 
£ worketh not, but believeth.’ 

15. The great secret of all happiness is knowing the 
way to the cross. 

16. It is a great thing to live upon the blood; but I 
want one thing more; I want to live upon Him who shed it. 

17. A whole-hearted sinner will never know anything of 
a full Christ. 

18. Nothing darkens the soul like indulged sin. 

19. The life of a natural man is one departure from God. 
He is not only not quite right; he is altogether wrong. Every 
step he takes is a step of departure farther from God. 

20. There is not one sin we ever commit but has its 
effects upon our souls in after years. 

21. It requires a whole Trinity to keep a saint of God. 

22. A citizen of the New Jerusalem travelling home¬ 
wards, is our true standing and our real position; everything 
below that is below ourselves and our high calling. 

23. It is the man of prayer that receives large communi¬ 
cations from God. 

24. Put all you have beside your dying bed ; put all 
upon your coffin, and then weigh it. 

25. My brother, do you and I know, to a certainty, that 
the Son of God shall not come this day ? Do we know, to 
a certainty, that we shall not this day hear the trump of the 
archangel 1 Why was it said, eighteen hundred years ago, 
‘ The coming of the Lord draweth nigh’? That men might 
watch for it; looking for the coming of the day of God. 





JAMES. 333 


JAMES (JOHN ANGELL). 

BORN 1785—DIED 1859. 

♦ 

1. It is by faith, not for faith, that we are justified. 
Nothing can be a greater corruption of the truth than to 
represent believing as accepted instead of righteousness, or 
to be the righteousness that saves the sinner. 

2. We have a modern subjectivity rising up, which aims 
to substitute an intuitional consciousness for simple faith, 
and to give us an inward light for the objective glory of 
the Sun of righteousness. 

3. What are all thy sorrows, thy cares, and thy losses, 
viewed in the light of this happy condition 1 Tell me of 
thy poverty and many privations, I will reply, ‘ Yes; but 
then think of thy justification !’ Tell me of thy disap¬ 
pointed hopes and blasted schemes; ‘Yes, but thy justi¬ 
fication!’ Tell me of thy change of circumstances, and 
the painful contrast of the present with the past; ‘Yes, 
but thy justification !’ Tell me of thy friends departed, 
and thy now desolate condition; ‘Yes, but thy justifi¬ 
cation ! ’ Thus, to every tale of want or woe, when that 
tale comes from the lips of a believer in Christ, I will 
bring up that one sweet, soothing melody for the troubled 
spirit,—justification by faith. 

4. Faith is a mightier conqueror of the world than even 
death. We shall do more to gain the victory by looking 
up into heaven than by looking down into the grave. 




WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


334 

5. If profiting (not pleasing) is the end of preachmg , how 
much of failure is perpetually going on ! 

6. Better, far better, not to speak at all, but go home in 
silence, than to enter upon all kinds of general conversa¬ 
tion as soon as the service is over. 

7. We do not think enough of Christ’s second coming. 
What would be said of the wife who, when her husband 
was away in another country, could be happy without 
him, and be contented to think rarely of him. On the 
contrary, the loving wife longs for her husband’s return. 
Oh, when will he come back ! is her frequent exclamation. 
Wife of the Lamb, church of the Saviour, where is thy 
waiting, hoping, longing for the second coming of thy 
Lord ? Is this thy blessed hope, as it was that of the primi¬ 
tive church. O Christian, are these not wanting here % 
Every morsel of that bread thou eatest at the sacramental 
table, every drop of wine thou drinkest, is the voice of 
Christ saying to thee , I will come again, and receive you 
to myself; and should draw forth thy longing desires, 
Come, Lord Jesus; even so, come quickly. 

8. The night is long, and dark, and stormy, but 
the morning must come; and oh what a sunrise will 
it be ! 

9. Christian, why weepest thou ? Look up ! heaven is 
smiling above you ! Look on ! heaven is opening before 
you ! Let your tears, if they must fall, be as the drops of 
rain which fall in the sunshine, and reflect the colours of 
the rainbow. The last tear of earth will soon be wiped 
away, amid the first smile of heaven; and that smile will 
be eternal. 
















JAMES. 


335 


10. If the man that trembles at death be a coward, he 
that trifles with it is a fool. 

11. How little the writers of the New Testament say 
about death, compared with what they do about the hea¬ 
venly glory ! It would seem as if they scarcely saw it, and 
as if it were lost amidst the blaze of the celestial splendour, 
and appeared only like a dark spot floating on the disc of 
the heavenly luminary! 

12. It is a fearful thing to come to a deathbed with a 
religion so feeble as to leave the poor soul in dreadful 
doubt as to its state. 
















336 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


BICKERS TE TH (EDWARD). 

BORN 1786—DIED 1850. 

1. The natural tendency of our hearts is ever to con¬ 
found the Church and the world, and to make the lines 
between the two indistinct. One great purpose of the 
Scripture, that we may be guarded against so fatal a 
mistake, is to make the distinction manifest. 

2. But oh how ungrateful have we been ! Covetous and 
earthly-minded, selfish and worldly, proud, ambitious, full 
of vainglory, delighting in war and victory, and glorying 
over others ; our iniquities in our own land, and in every 
land where we have gone, have been continually testifying 
against us, and filling up a fearful measure of guilt. Eng¬ 
land ought to be deeply humbled before God, instead of 
being lifted up with pride. Yet God has spared us, and 
preserved His church in the midst of us; and for its sake, 
and His great name’s sake, He has delivered us from our 
foes even when we justly merited His wrath, and has 
blessed us that we may be a blessing. How often have 
our monarchs, our statesmen and our heroes, our Parlia¬ 
ment and our whole country, been unfaithful to God ! and 
how often has He revived us, by giving us faithful wit¬ 
nesses of His word to withstand error, and boldly testify 
His truth! 

3. The church is in its preparation only for its future 
glory. The temple is only building, the lively stones are 





BICKERSTETH. 337 


only gathering, polishing, and finishing for their respective 
places. As soon as an individual Christian is mature, he 
is removed; the harvests of each season, as soon as they 
are ripe, are gathered in, and a fresh growth succeeds. We 
see, therefore, but indistinctly and partially the fulness of 
God’s wisdom and love in all that He is doing. What will 
be the coming maturity ? If the present truth be so pre¬ 
cious, what will be the fulness of truth and glory in the day 
of Christ, when all the saints are gathered together in the 
glorified bodies of the resurrection, in the presence of 
Christ, when we shall see Him as He is, and know as we 
are known ? Oh happy day, the Lord hasten it, and bring 
us each one to partake of it! 

4. Glorious was the scene when Enoch was translated; 
or when Elijah’s chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared 
in the whirlwind, and took him to his glory; yet more 
glorious was the scene, when, surrounded by His disciples, 
the risen Saviour slowly and majestically ascended. How 
unspeakably glorious, then, will be that full result of His 
resurrection and ascension, when, crowding from every 
country, in glorious resurrection-bodies shining as the sun, 
at one and the same moment, the myriads and myriads of 
His saints, of every age, are all gathered into his presence, 
where is fulness of joy, and are ever with the Lord I 

5. O glorious state ! unspeakably desirable ! No sin, no 
curse, no death, no sorrow, no pain, no temptation; God 
Himself with us for ever, and our God : all holiness, all 
blessing, all life, all joy, all bliss, all victory and triumph 
for evermore ! What a scene of glory must this be ! Come, 
Lord Jesus, quickly come ! 


Y 










338 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


WOLFE (RE V. C.). 

BORN 1791—DIED 1823. 

1. The gospel is a word in season to him that is weary; 
it speaks, therefore, to him that is weary; to him that is 
seeking rest and finding none; and to him it brings relief, 
refreshment, and repose. 

2. The gospel finds you a bruised reed; it props and 
supports you. It finds you weeping; and it wipes away 
all tears from your eyes. It finds you fearful, cheerless, 
disquieted; and it gives you courage, hope, and tranquillity. 
There is a wilderness before it, and the garden of Eden 
behind. Before it is lamentation, and mourning, and woe ; 
behind it come thanksgiving and the voice of melody. 

3. How should even the' innocent pleasures of life sink 
in your estimation, when you think of those pleasures that 
are at the right hand of God ! 

4. Where will you find a man that has not some thorn 
in his side ? 

5. To whom do our thoughts belong 1 On what objects 
do they delight to repose; and how many of them would 
you wish to conceal from the pure and everlasting gaze of 
your Creator 1 ? 

6. Choose which master you will serve, mammon or 
God 1 Choose which wages you will receive, death or 
immortality 1 ? Think before you decide, which master 
loves you most, which would sacrifice most for you ? 












WOLFE. 


339 


7 • Times and seasons may change; the everlasting 
gospel is still the same. 

8. The burden of the man of the world is gathering as 
he proceeds; that of the Christian is becoming lighter 
and more easy. 

9. We are here in a state of education for heaven; it 
should be nothing less than the business of an education. 

10. The wicked thinks there is a chance that God may 
not be in earnest, and upon that chance he plunges in, 
body and soul. 

11. How has God’s mercy been shewn 1 ? By visiting 
the sentence on sin to the uttermost. He did not fling us 
His mercy indolently from His throne ; but He executed 
sentence to the uttermost upon His only-begotten Son. 
His mercy does not consist in extinguishing His justice, 
but in executing it upon the head of the Son in whom He 
was well-pleased. Awful mercy ! Terrible forgiveness ! 
Mercy that we must not dare to trifle with! 

12. Christ is “God manifest.” He is the Word\ God 
heard; the light , God seen; the life , God felt. 








WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


IR VING (EDWARD). 

BORN 1792—DIED 1834. 

1. I cannot help observing what an entireness this (Rev. 
xxii.) bespeaketh in the very words of Scripture, and how 
it confirmeth the doctrine of verbal inspiration. 

2. This is my view of the Apocalypse. It was intended 
to be at once the chart, and the pole-star, and the light of 
the Christian church, over the stormy waves of time, 
until the Great Pilot who walketh upon the waters and 
stilleth the waves should again give Himself to the sinking 
ship, and make her His abode, His ark, His glory, for 
ever and ever. 

3. God’s glory is the one great object of a creature’s 
being. 

4. All that can be feli of God is in the Holy Ghost; all 
that can be known of God is in the Son; and all that is 
of God is in the Father. 

5. The Faithful Witness is He who in the age to come 
shall cast the liar out of the earth, and the great lie out of 
creation. 

6. Death is the seal of the fallen creature. 

7. Christ is known to be very God, not because the 
names of very God are taken and applied to Him, but, 
which is far stronger, that the names applied to Him are 
the names taken and given to God. 

8. This symbol of stars (Rev. i. 20) doth signify that 






IR VING. 


34 i 


all true light is dispensed to the world by Christ’s ministers, 
until the Sun of righteousness arise and eclipse them all 
with the glory of His light. 

9. Christ wants love, and nothing less than love can 
please Him. He is troubled with the falling away of our 
love, and He laments over it. Man all over, even in His 
glory, He mourns over a brother’s weaned affections, and 
He condescends to remonstrate with him on the subject. 
How beautiful, how sublime, is such condescension in 
God’s Anointed One, who ever hath and holdeth the love 
of God, and of all elect angels, and of all glorified saints, 
thus to make His moan over His turtle-dove upon the 
earth ! My soul, be lifted up with admiration; and learn 
thus lowly to entreat the love of the lowliest! 

10. As it is Christ’s personal office to inform and 
instruct His ministers, or to speak unto the angels of the 
churches, so it is the Spirit’s personal office to speak unto 
the churches. 

11. The Holy Spirit bindeth the churches: spirits of 
darkness bind the world. 

12. The Holy Ghost cometh not with some indescribable 
influence to work some formless effect; but he doth come 
unto us for that same end for which he came unto the 
Virgin, in order to beget sons of God ! 

13. The world is drenched in guilt. The red waters of 
its guilt flow up unto the very lip, and in a few, few 
instants, shall overwhelm its life. In blood, in a deluge 
of blood, its height of hope shall be drowned, its star of 
hope quenched. The day is far spent. The night is at 
hand ! 






342 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


14. True humility doth not speak much of itself; but 
sitteth still, and listeneth and learneth. 

15. You might as well think to change times and laws, 
and to reverse the stable ordinances of God, as think in 
your own strength to withstand Satan’s assaults, or redeem 
your souls from his dominion; because it is the dominion 
of sin, whose strength is the law, whose constancy is the 
unchangeable God, who hath said, The soul that sinneth, 
it shall die. Can you say unto disease, Depart ? Can 
you say to pain, Gnaw my vitals no more; or to sorrow, 
Poison my peace no longer, and no longer consume my 
verdure? Can you say to the clay-cold lips, Breathe 
upon me once more; or to the death-bound tongue, 
Speak to me again, that my soul may be comforted, and 
my hopes revived ? Can you say to the grave, Give me 
back my dead, thou devouring grave; or to corruption, 
Feed not on my darling? Canst thou, O man, abrogate 
or reverse any one of these bitter stings which trouble thy 
soul’s good condition from the cradle to the grave ? 














NEVINS. 


343 


NE VINS. 

BORN 1797—DIED 1835. 

1. I feel that I must not only pray more, but differently; 
and that my praying more will not answer any good pur¬ 
pose, unless I also pray differently. I find that quality is 
to be considered in praying, as well as quantity; and, in¬ 
deed, the former more than the latter. 

2. It displeases God that we should be always dwelling 
on our wants, as if He had never supplied one of them. 
How do we know that God is not waiting for us to praise 
Him for a benefit He has already conferred, before He 
will confer on us that other which we may be now' so ear¬ 
nestly desiring of Him ? 

3. Say you, ‘ I cannot trust myself? But can you not 
trust Christ ? If there is danger that you will prove faith¬ 
less, yet, is there any danger that He will ? It is because 
you are not to be trusted that you should trust Him, who 
is able to keep that which is committed to Him. If you 
trust Him for strength, you are as sure of being supplied, 
as of being pardoned, if you trust Him for that. 

4. Yes, when saints become anxious, it is not long ere 
sinners become anxious. The inquiry of the three thousand 
on the day of Pentecost, ‘ Men and brethren, what shall 
we do?’ was preceded by the inquiry of the one hundred 
and twenty who 1 all continued with one accord in prayer 
and supplication.’ Generally, I suppose, that is the order. 
First, saints inquire, and then sinners. And whenever in 

















344 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


any congregation, religion does not flourish, one principal 
reason of it is, that the saints are not inquiring. 

5. Some sinners repent with an unbroken heart. They 
are sorry, and yet go on as did Pilate and Herod. 

6. A sinner must come to himself as did the prodigal, 
before ever he will come to Christ. 

7. When a Christian backslides, it is as if the prodigal son 
had reacted his folly, and left his father’s house a second 
time. 

8. Some sinners lay down their burden elsewhere than 
at the feet of Jesus. 

9. Human friends can weep with us when we weep; but 
Jesus is a friend, who, when He has wept with us, can 
wipe away all our tears. 

10. Procrastination has been called a thief—the thief of 
time. I wish it were no worse than a thief. It is a mur¬ 
derer ; and that which it kills is not time merely, but the 
immortal soul. 

11. The obstacle in the way of the sinner’s conversion 
possesses all the force and invincibleness of an inability, with 
all the freeness a?id criminality of an indisposition. 

12. How many indulge a hope which they dare not 
examine ! 

13. If the mere delay of hope—hope deferred—makes 
the heart sick, what will the death of hope—its final and 
total disappointment—despair—do to it 

14. Genuine benevolence is not stationary, but peripa¬ 
tetic. It goeth about doing good. 

15. It is easier to do a great deal of mischief than to 
accomplish a little good. 
















VINET. 345 


VINE T. 

BORN 1797—DIED 1852. 

1. Stripped of the great fact of expiation, and all 
that cluster of ideas connected with it, what, I ask, is 
Christianity 1 

2. The sensibility which frequently overflows in tears, 
often leaves in the heart a large place for selfishness. 

3. It is absolutely impossible that a true religion should 
not present a great number of mysteries. It teaches 
more truths than all others; but each of these truths has 
a relation to the infinite, and, by consequence, borders on 
a mystery. 

4. Mysteries multiply with discoveries. With each new 
day there is associated a new night. We purchase increase 
of knowledge with an increase of ignorance. 

5. The things of the heart are not truly comprehended 
but by the heart. 

6. Great souls pass through the world without being 
understood. 

7. Christianity has not left to infidelity the satisfac¬ 
tion of being the first to tax it with folly. It has 
hastened to bring this accusation against itself. It has 
professed the bold design of saving men by a folly (1 Cor. 

i- 23)- 

8. Christianity is something more than an assemblage 
of dogmas; it is the principle of a new life. 















346 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


9. Christianity has given to truth a dignity independent 
of time and numbers. It has required that truth should 
be believed and respected for itself. 

10. Men believe so much in man, so much in numbers, 
so much in antiquity, and so little in truth ! Christianity 
was designed to produce a race of men who should 
believe in truth, not in numbers, nor in years, nor in 
force ; men, consequently, who should be ready to pass 
for fools. 

11. Oh, then, let us daily ask God to form around us an 
immense void, in which we shall see nothing but Him,— 
a profound silence, in which we shall hear nothing but 
Him ! 

] 2. It is not known how difficult it is to believe in the 
midst of a crowd that does not believe. 

13. Faith, which is the vision of the invisible and the 
absent brought nigh, is the energy of the soul and the 
energy of life. It is the point of departure for all action ; 
since to act is to quit the firm position of the present, and 
stretch the hand into the future. 

14. The greater part of men live by faith in powerful 
men. A small number of individuals lead the whole 
human race. 

15. The cross, the triumph of grace, is the triumph of 
law. 

16. We believe in the wreck of humanity (the fall); 
we believe that its unfortunate ship has perished; 
the remains of that great catastrophe float upon the 
waves. 

17. The King of heaven can sign nothing but an 





VINET. 


347 


honourable peace. When He pardons, it cannot be at the 
expense either of His justice or His holiness. The honour 
of His government has suffered no stain. 

18. Sages of the earth, Christ is the key of your pro¬ 
blems, the completion of that philosophy which you 
resume without ceasing, but never finish; troubled spirits, 
He is your peace; lovers of wealth, He is your true trea¬ 
sure ; men, He is the word which solves the enigma of 
life, and conquers the power of death. He alone re-binds 
us to the author of our being, and to universal order. 


















348 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


HE WITS ON. 

BORN 1812—DIED 1850. 

1. It is as sinful to doubt God’s willingness to save me as 
to doubt His existence. 

2. No amusement is innocent which takes away the soul 
from Jesus. 

3. Our faith overcomes by identifying us with the Son 
of God. 

4. No small part of meekness lies in waiting on the 
Spirit for strength to perform all our works unto the Lord. 

5. May we, like Rahab, hang out the scarlet thread in 
the sight of the Lord, and, like her, be delivered from the 
overflowing scourge when it passes through. 

6. How little I am like Jesus, who, when He walked 
on earth, was “ in heavenwho, as has been beautifully 
said, always repelled sin, but touched it at every point. 

7. The warfare is hot; we need God’s armour always, 
and all God’s armour. 

8. If we would let God’s thoughts, as they are revealed 
in the word, come in and fill the chamber of our minds, 
how different our views and feelings would be regarding 
both God and ourselves; both His thoughts toward us, 
and our standing in His sight % What an ado unbelief 
sometimes stirs up within us, as if all were over! Were 
God’s thoughts then to be let in, it would be like 
Jesus coming into the midst of the mourners, and saying, 








HE WITS ON. 


349 


Why make ye this ado, and weep 'i The damsel is not 
dead, but sleepeth. As the minstrels and other mourners 
are put out of the house by Jesus, so must our thoughts be put 
out of our hearts by God’s thoughts. Then, all being still, 
the sweet voice of the Redeemer will be heard, Maid, arise! 

9. The cross now, the crown to-morrow; now the bed 
of languishing, to-morrow the throne of Jesus. 

10. I find that to say, Come quickly, is the result only of 
close walking with God. 

n. Nothing but the blessed hope of Christ’s glorious 
appearing, and of our being partakers of the glory when 
He appears, can draw us away from and lift us upward 
from among the temptations, and cares, and enjoyments 
of the present scene. 

12. Rend, ye heavens, and give us back our Lord! 
Open, and let us in to our incorruptible inheritance. 

13. These two facts, Christ dead, and Christ living, give 
us peace of conscience and participation in the life of God. 
Christ dead, is our all for pardon and peace; Christ living, 
is our all for life and holiness. 

14. Yet a little while, and He will place the crown on 
your now oftentimes aching brow. 

15. The morning is drawing on apace; the streaks of 
day-dawn are beginning to appear in the east. 

16. Faith sees already the dawning light, the first 
streaks of day, on the tops of the eastern hills. Faith, not 
fancy, sees the Lord just on the point of leaving the right 
hand of the Father; and she raises her unheeded voice 
amid the sleeping, dreaming virgins, “Behold, He corneth 
with clouds !” 














350 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


M‘CHE YNE. 

BORN 1813—DIED 1843. 

1. It is all the gift of the sun, that the grass is of that 
refreshing green, and all the rivers are lines of waving blue. 
It is all the gift of the sun, that the flowers are tinged with 
their thousand glories; that the petal of the rose has its 
delicate blush, and the lily, that neither toils nor spins, has 
a brightness greater than Solomon’s. Now, this is the 
way you may be justified. You are dark and vile in 
yourselves, but Christ’s glory shall be seen in you. 

2. Amazing love, that calls you to a feast (Prov. ix. 
i-6), and not to hell! 

3. When you lift up your eyes in hell, or when Jesus 
comes, you will cry, ‘Lord, Lord;’ but all diligence will 
then be too late. When the boat has left the shore, it is 
vain for you to run. 

4. The way of salvation, by Jehovah our Righteousness, 
was sweet to Paul. His soul rested here with great 
delight. He came thus to God in secret, thus in public, 
thus in dying. 

5. For every sin of yours, here is a stripe in Jesus. For 
the sins of infancy, here are the sufferings of His infancy; for 
the sins of youth, here are the sufferings of His youth; for 
the sins of manhood, here are the'sufferings of His manhood. 

6. His obedience is divine obedience. For your unholy 
life, here is His divinely holy life to cover you. Here are 















M‘ CUE YNE. 


35i 


His holy thoughts to cover your unholy thoughts; here His 
holy words to cover your unholy words ; here are His holy 
actions to cover your unholy actions. There is something 
infinitely vast and glorious in the righteousness of God. 

7. If Christ was sufficient for one sinner, then He must 
be sufficient for all. The great difficulty with God was, 
not how to admit many sinners into His favour, but how 
to admit o?ie sinner. If that difficulty has been got over, 
then the whole has been got over. 

8. I know that, if any of you have tasted the sweetness of 
Christ, you would be content to abide in Him for an eternity. 

9. God’s anger is like a river dammed up. It is getting 
higher and higher, fuller and deeper, every day. 

10. Little children, if you would take Jesus for a Saviour, 
then you might carry all your griefs to Him; for Jesus 
knows what it is to be a little child. 

11. God has an infinite sense of justice. His eyes be¬ 
hold the things that are equal. Now, when He sees the 
blood of His Son sprinkled on any soul, He sees that 
justice has had its full satisfaction in that soul; that that 
man’s sins have been more fully punished than if he had 
borne them himself eternally. 

12. If the word concerning Christ does not break your 
heart, it will make it as the nether millstone. 

13. You will be incomplete Christians, if you do not 
look for the coming again of the Lord Jesus. 

14. Soon we shall see Him as He is; then our trials 
shall be done. We shall reign with Him, and be entirely 
like Him. The angels will know us, by our very faces, 
to be brothers and sisters of Jesus. 






352 WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


PO WE PS CO CRT (LAD Y). 

DIED 1836. 

1. It needs a great stretch of faith sometimes, when the 
enemy comes in like a flood, to believe that God is as 
much at peace with me, through Christ, as with those 
already above; that Abraham now in glory is noj: safer 
than I. 

2. What simplicity there seemed to be in Christ’s 
words after His resurrection ! He seemed to enjoy the 
travail of His soul when distributing His peace. 

3. It is worth being afflicted to become intimately 
acquainted with, and to learn to make use of, the chief 
among ten thousand, the altogether lovely. 

4. The poor world may have a reprieve here from 
suffering, but the child of God may not, would not, if he 
might. Happy confidence; He will not keep back one 
needful stroke ! Is it not strange that the moment He is 
acting most the part of a parent, is just the moment we 
are most apt to forget we are His children % 

5. He is never more wounded in the house of His 
friends, than when they murmur. Nothing seems so to 
overcome His forbearance with the Israelites. 

6. Let us come in the simplicity of sickness, in the 
helplessness of want; to trust is to be healed, to touch 
the hem of His garment is to be whole; but let us keep 
touching Him, for virtue is ever coming from Him. 









POWERSCOURT. 


353 


7. Let i get well acquainted with our Physician ; let 
us take lodgings in His neighbourhood; let us see Him 
every day. 

8. We are not to flee from Satan, but to resist , that he 
may flee from us. 

9. We have a right to wear a sweeter smile than even 
angels wear. 

10. I am quite weary of this heart,—Satan’s workshop, 
—always going on, hammer, hammer, hammer, stealing 
every grace given, to manufacture into some adornment 
for the ideal self. 

ti. It is underground work here; our roots taking a 
firmer grasp of the Rock of Ages, in order to our springing 
up and flourishing in the courts of our God. 

12. I believe the Lord explains the meaning of words 
by His providences. 

13. He has shewn His love in trusting His cause to us, 
and lent us as volumes of His library for the perusal of 
the world. 

14. Perilous times ! when Christians have time to play 
with idols; have time to feast the world; to nestle them¬ 
selves as the world; to go rounds of formality; have time 
to pick faults in their neighbours, their brethren; have 
time to amuse themselves with religious dissipation ! 

15. Angels know the bliss of power, we the happiness 
of weakness. 

16. Blessed be God, His blood can cleanse us not only 
from all the evil that we see, but what He sees. Many cham¬ 
bers within are unopened yet to us. We see but through the 
crevice; yet His blood gets entrance and drowns all. 


z 












354 


WORDS OLD AND NEW. 


17. Alas, what idolatry, what mockery, what mummery 
around me ! May He quickly come and set all things in 
order, for this confusion is the earnest of hell ! 

18. From Scripture it seems to me that a minister’s 
chief business commences instead of finishes when a soul 
is brought to life. 

19. Having to reign with Christ we must come into the 
same school to learn to govern. 

20. Our risen hands must not touch anything below 
accursed in Satan. 

21. We are afraid of being desperate Christians ! Oh, 
let us be desperate. The church needs extremity; a 
great tug out of the world. 

22. Our kingdom is not from hence. We should be 
looking at earth as from heaven, instead of looking at 
heaven from earth, as though present things were already 
past, and future things already present. 

23. What a thunderclap of hallelujah when all the 
prayers of all saints for our poor world, long, long laid up, 
shall all be answered in one event! 





















INDEX OF AUTHORS. 


Abbot, 

Adams, . 

A Kemp is ( Thomas), 
Athanasius, 

Augustine, 

Bacon (Lord), 

Bale, 

Basil, 

Bates, 

Baxter, 

Bernard', 

Berridge, 

Beveridge, 

Bickersteth, 

Binning, 

Booth, 

Boston, 

Bradford', 

Brainerd, 

Brooks, . 

Browne (Sir T.), 

Brown (Dr), . 

Brown (of Haddington), 
Buchaltzer , 

Bullinger, 

Bunyan , . 

Burgess ( Anthony), 

Calamy , . 

Calvin, . 

Caryl, 

Cecil, 

Chalmers , 

Char nock, 

Chaucer, 

Chemnitz, 

Chrysostom, 

Clement (of Rome), 
Clement (of Alexandria), 


Pagk 

I2 5 

265 

53 

16 

32 

123 

74 

25 

208 

194 

42 

280 

232 

336 

206 

298 

259 

90 

286 

199 

175 

329 

288 

103 

84 

212 

237 


171 

302 

323 

214 

50 

101 

30 

2 

8 


Coleridge, 

Cooper, 

Cradock, . 

Cranmer, 

Crisp, 

Cyprian, . 

Davert ant, 

De Valentia (Jacobi), 
Dent, 

Dickson, . 

Edwards (Jon.), 
Ephraem (the Syrian), 
Erasmus, 

Erskine (Ebenezer), 
Evans, 

Fenelon, . 

Fisher, 

Flavel, 

FJeming, . 

Foster, 

Fox, 

Fraser, 

Fulgentius, 

Goodwin ( Thomas), 

Gray (Andrew), 

Gregory (of Nazianzum), 
Gregory (the Great), 

Gualter, . 

Guyon, 


Pao& 

316 

94 
166 

7 i 

161 

13 

137 

63 

108 

142 

269 

21 

61 

261 

33 i 

244 

180 

210 

216 

3H 

192 

235 

34 

x 55 

222 

23 

37 

99 

241 


Haldane (R.), 

Hale ( Sir A/.), 

Hall (Bishop), 

Hall (Robert), 
Halyburton, 
Hamilton (Patrick), 
Henry (Matthew), 


3 12 

159 

134 

310 

255 

82 

251 





























356 


INDEX OF AUTHORS. 


Herbert ( Geo.), 

Page 

• 153 

Hewitson, 

• 348 

Hervey, . 

• 273 

Hildebert, 

• 39 

Hill (Sir R.), 

• 294 

Hooker, . 

• 1 f 3 

Horne (Bishop), 

. 292 

Horsley, . 

. • 296 

//owe, . . ' . 

. 219 

Howels, . 

. 318 

Hume (Alex.), 

120 

Huss, 

• 56 

Ignatius, 

3 

Ireneeus, . 

5 

Irving, Edward, 

• 340 

James (J. A.), 

• 333 

Janeway, 

. 227 

Jerome, . 

• 27 

Jones, 

• 304 

Knox (John), 

. 86 

Latimer, . 

. 66 

Leigh, 

• 173 

Leighton, 

. 188 

Lindsay, . 

• 131 

Lockyer, . 

• 183 

Love, 

• 306 

Luther, . 

. 68 

Macarius, 

• 18 

Marshall, 

. 229 

MHaurin, 

. 263 

M'Cheyne, 

• 350 

Mede, 

• 144 

Melancthon, 

77 

Mestrezat, 

. 150 

Milton, 

. 177 

Milner ( Joseph.), 

. 300 

Netlleton, 

• 325 

Nevins, 

• 343 

Newton (John), 

. 290 


Owen, 

Page 
• 197 

Paleario (Aonio), 

• 79 

Pascal, 

. 204 

Payson, . 

• 327 

Pearson, . 

. 186 

Perkins, . 

• 117 

Petrarch, 

46 

Pictet, 

. 246 

Pike (Samuel), 

. 283 

Powerscourt ( Lady), 

• 352 

Quarles, . 

• 147 

Quesnel, . 

• 225 

Raleigh, . 

. IIO 

Rollock, . 

• 115 

Romaine, 

• 275 

Rutherford, 

164 

Sandys, . 

. 96 

Savonarola, 

. 58 

Schimmelpcnninck, . 

■ 320 

Shepherd, 

• 253 

Sibbes, 

160 

Steivart, . 

. 308 

Supcrville, 

. 248 

Sutton, 

128 

Tastier, . 

■ 44 

Taylor (Jeremy), 

. 191 

Tertullian, 

11 

Trapp, 

169 

Trelcatius, 

• . 105 

Vinet, 

• 345 

Watson, . 

• 239 

Watts, 

• 257 

Wesley (John), 

. 271 

Whitefield, 

• 277 

Wicliffe, \ 

. 48 

Wilcox, . 

. 201 

Wolfe (Charles), 

• 338 


EDINBURGH: PRINTED BY JOHN GREIG AND SON. 











































































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